Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

The paper refers to the Defence Forces having a plethora of qualified personnel and a vast resource of equipment. We do not have a plethora of qualified personnel. I assure the Deputy that my advice and experience is that all of those providing physical fitness training in the army are fully taken up with the work they are supposed to do. It is misleading to state that there is "X" amount of qualified people because some of them have moved on to other things. For example, as far as I know the Chief of Staff is a qualified physical fitness instructor but he cannot engage in that type of work.

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