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

I accept the Minister's bona fide on this issue but the difficulty rests within the operational capacity of both groups, the Permanent Defence Force and the Reserve Defence Force. We have created a single force but there is not the type of happy relationship between the two groups that would be necessary and conducive to achieving the development to which the Minister has referred. One of the particular difficulties is that the old military cadre that existed to work with, assist, promote and develop the reserve no longer exists. I gave the Minister the example at the meeting on the Estimates a few weeks ago. I accept his point that we need people who are fit and able and capable of doing the particular job. I gave the example of 100 people who, apparently, had passed the various tests and fitness tests but whose applications to join were dependent on Garda approval and the 100 applications were left sitting on a desk and not sent to the Garda Vetting Unit until it was too late.

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