Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I agree with Deputy Deenihan regarding the promotional structure, which is under consideration. Any perception that the reserve is being undervalued is mistaken. An entire section of the White Paper addressed the reserve and made various recommendations. For example, the recommended re-organisation has been undertaken. The White Paper recommended better uniforms, training, systems of gratuities and so on. All of these have been followed. The White Paper was ambitious in some respects. As I have told Deputy Stanton, integration has not occurred to the extent preferred. However, a follow-on White Paper on defence next year will deal with this issue.

I have the highest regard for the reserve. When the moratorium was introduced, the Department of Finance took the view that it should apply to everyone, including the reserve. I managed to overturn that decision, one of the first breaches of the moratorium. I did this to indicate the high regard in which I held the reserve and the fact that I did not want to see its numbers further depleted.

Deputy Deenihan asked a question on serving abroad. Since members of the RDF are not entitled to serve overseas statutorily, we are hoping to recruit into the Permanent Defence Force, PDF, on a temporary basis members of the RDF who had signed up to go abroad. Obviously, this idea is affected by the moratorium. As I have made certain recommendations to the Minister for Finance regarding the moratorium, let us see what occurs.

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