Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The strength of the Reserve Defence Force, RDF, at the end of May 2016 was 2,134 effective personnel. The 2015 White Paper on Defence confirms that the primary role of the reserve is to augment the Permanent Defence Force in times of crisis and to participate in ceremonial events. The White Paper also sets out a developmental path for the RDF. It provides that the overarching establishment of the Army Reserve, AR, and the Naval Service Reserve, NSR, is to be set at 4,169 personnel, consisting of 3,869 Army reservists and the expansion of the four NSR units from 200 personnel to 300.

In addition, the White Paper recognises that there may be professional skills that, on occasion, are not readily available in the Permanent Defence Force. Arising from the fact that there may be individual members of the RDF who, by virtue of their professional civilian qualifications, have the competence to undertake such specialised tasks and fill the skills gap, the Government has decided that a panel of such professionally qualified members of the RDF, to be known as the Specialist Reserve, should be established.

A key challenge is to recruit and train sufficient personnel to meet the reserve establishment provided for in the White Paper. The Defence Forces will continue to seek increases to the level of RDF recruitment in 2016.

It must be remembered that membership of the RDF is voluntary and strength levels are ultimately dependent on how many people volunteer for it in any given calendar year and commit to ongoing active participation in training and other activities.

With regard to Garda clearance, as I advised the Deputy recently, applicants to the Reserve Defence Forces are vetted by the Garda central vetting unit as part of the recruitment process. Processing times for vetting of applications can take up to 12 weeks on average. The Deputy will appreciate that in some cases additional inquiries may be necessary and this may result in processing times in excess of the average. For security and operational reasons the Defence Forces cannot comment on vetting processes in individual cases.

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