Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

The Minister might provide the House with some of his thoughts on the integrated Reserve Defence Force and the First Line Reserve. Does he still plan on going ahead with both? Will the reserves form part of future UN missions in which we are involved? At the conference, it was strongly conveyed that, to provide motivation, the integrated reserve would be the way forward, but that plan seems to have been abandoned by the Department.

It is alarming that, whereas there were 24,000 people in the RDF not too many years ago, the current number is approximately 6,000, which the Minister confirmed. Will he clarify his position on the integrated reserve and the First Line Reserve?

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