Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

As the Deputy knows, the future position of the Reserve Defence Force and the manner in which it is organised are caught up in the reorganisation process being undertaken to reduce it from a three brigade to a two brigade structure. That reorganisation must be fed into the review being undertaken of the Reserve Defence Force. As I said yesterday, I hope the review will be completed by September. We should have greater clarity surrounding the structure of the Reserve Defence Force and the numbers involved in it.

I gave the Deputy some cost figures yesterday and they have not changed in 24 hours. Similar to other elements of the Defence Forces, the cost of the Reserve Defence Force is spread across a range of subheads of Vote 36. Subhead A5 is devoted entirely to Reserve Defence Force expenditure and includes payments for training, gratuities and allowances, including grants paid into unit funds. The 2012 provision is €4.386 million, the same as in 2011, and includes €2.5 million for paid training. Subheads A3, A4 and A17 include, inter alia, the pay and travel costs of the Permanent Defence Force personnel who provide training and administrative support for the Reserve Defence Force, generally known as the cadre. Subhead A19 includes rental costs of property used by the Reserve Defence Force. There is a range of others costs spread across other subheads, including petrol, transport and ration costs. They are not currently disagregated for the Reserve Defence Force, but the key costs relating to it, if we include the Permanent Defence Force cadre, pay and employer's PRSI payments, amount to €16,262,000. Allowances paid to the Permanent Defence Force cadre amount to €2,592,000. The Deputy will note the figure of almost €19 million within the Permanent Defence Force attributable to the reserve. It is part of the cost of the reserve because if this work was not undertaken by the individuals who form part of the cadre, they would carry out other operational duties with regard to the Permanent Defence Force. This is a real and identifiable cost and it is part and parcel of the overall costs. The total cost of the cadre in all matters relating to the reserve comes to €23,135,000.

See this speech in context