Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As we know, the RDF is a committed volunteer force that gives of its time in the service of the State and the vast proportion of that time is unpaid. We can look at international best practice and see that countries with a small military capability tend to have a very large part-time reserve to call on. That, unfortunately, is not the situation here. When I read the White Paper, I thought there appeared to be a strong commitment on the part of the Minister and the Department of Defence to the reserve. However, when I spoke to people who are actively involved, they were not reassured by the objectives set out in the White Paper. They have told me that there are practical continual difficulties, that recruitment is being made continually difficult and that the type of reserve the Minister and I speak about here is not being achieved because of the practical impediments on the ground.

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