Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is correct that this was a focus. It was one of many but it was an important focus at the symposium.

The Defence Forces Reserve is an important asset to the State.

I value the contribution of all of its members who volunteer their time and service so willingly. I am fully committed to its future development. To that end, an ongoing development process for the reserve is under way. This is being led by a high level civil-military oversight group which is addressing the agenda of issues identified in the review of the Reserve Defence Force, RDF, published in November 2012. This review was undertaken as part of the Government's overall programme of value for money, VFM, reviews. The VFM review identified a range of issues which were adversely affecting the capacity of the Reserve Defence Force. These included high turnover of personnel, poor uptake of training and inefficient organisational structures.

The review recommended a range of measures to ensure the continued viability of the reserve. These measures included the implementation of revised organisational structures based on a strength level of over 4,000 personnel, implementation of revised recruitment policy and practice, a critical review of the approach to the delivery of training, a revision of the regulatory criteria for classifying reservists as effective and the preparation of options for the future development of the first line reserve.

As I mentioned at the outset, the implementation of the review recommendations is ongoing. The revised "single force" structure, introduced in March 2013, offers significant potential to enhance Defence Forces' capabilities through improved interoperability between permanent and reserve elements. At present, reserve units remain under strength - I think they are about 46% under strength but I can give the Deputy the exact numbers if he wants them - and a key priority is to recruit further members to the RDF in order to reach strength level targets. Revised recruitment procedures were introduced with the goal of improving retention rates. However, the numbers recruited to date have proved disappointing. Progress in this regard and the implementation of other recommendations of the VFM review is being closely monitored.

We are taking this issue seriously in the White Paper on defence, which the Deputy will see pretty soon. We are trying to ensure that, in particular, we can get specialist skillsets into the reserve that can be used strategically and in interoperable way with the Permanent Defence Force. Let me be clear because some people seem to unaware of this-----

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