Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I am not an expert on how the Garda Reserve works but we have to be in a position whereby the money we are allocated each year for paid training days is sufficient to accommodate the number of people we have on the books. That is our duty. It would be irresponsible of me to say that we can recruit 1,000 or 2,000 people more than those for whom we can provide a reasonable number of paid training days. The Reserve Defence Force must undertake an essential minimum level of training. That is the position. The original ruling that we got from the Department of Finance was that the moratorium applied across the board. I managed to get that lifted. Let us see what happens with my submission on the Permanent Defence Forces. We will take it from there.

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