Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)

Will the Minister not agree it is serious that the full complement in the Reserve Defence Forces on 1 January 2009 was 7,671, and had dropped to 6,394 by 31 March this year, a loss of 1,277? The McCarthy an bord snip nua report has been described by the chairperson of the representative association of the Reserve Defence Forces as a "sword of Damocles". The report recommended a reduction both in budget and personnel strength of two-thirds. I understand an undertaking was given that this would not happen, yet the number of man days allocated to the Reserve Defence Forces this year has reduced by 31,000, effectively a two-thirds reduction on the 2008 usage.

I realise the review is ongoing, stakeholders are being consulted and so on. However, the situation continues to deteriorate and positive signals need to be sent to the Reserve Defence Forces to the effect that there will not be further cuts this year. Any further cuts would do enormous damage to morale. Essentially, I am asking the Minister to send strong signals that he sees a real future for the Reserve Defence Forces and indicating that he wants to develop them. Very importantly, and we agree on this, in terms of the functions they carry out, they should be reassured, and it is possible for them to interface effectively with the community at large in a whole myriad of areas.

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