Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

As regards Deputy Wall's first question, the number, I am informed, is 8,265 of which 7,914 are Army and 317 are Naval Service. I do not have the age profile, although it has reduced considerably in recent years. I shall get that detail for Deputy Wall. On how to create an interest, I suppose the best way is to encourage people to join the reserve and discourage them from leaving it once they join. The section of the White Paper concerned with the reserve force is all about that. There is better training, equipment and resourcing as well as the development of the integrated reserve. Development of the latter has been much slower than we thought, yet it is coming on considerably as of last year. These reforms must be put in place. We have now done that and are allowing them to be bedded down. There are two other simultaneous steps. One is the development of the frontline reserve, which we are hoping to find a useful role for and we are looking at a report on that. The second is the question of allowing reservists to serve overseas. In this regard, next year we are hoping to have a limited number of reservists who will be enabled to serve overseas. Depending on the experience gained from that participation, we shall develop this. Obviously, it will require discussions with employers etc. I anticipate that sufficient numbers of people will be available without getting into changing labour law, having agreements with IBEC or whatever, to start the initiative. From inquiries I am getting, there is quite a degree of interest. I have no doubt that when we decide on a quota of reservists, we shall be sending them overseas next year. It will probably be in technical areas such as transport, engineering, communications etc., but I have no doubt we shall have no difficulty whatsoever in fulfilling that quota.

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