Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the issue raised by RDFRA at the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence last week. A rolling recruitment campaign for the Reserve Defence Forces general service was launched in September 2015. As of 31 December 2016, a total of 5,891 applications were received of which 726 were from females. The Army Reserve had 5,190 applications while the Naval Service Reserve had 771. A total of 78 recruits were recruited to the RDF in 2016. The Defence Forces will continue to process applications from the campaign through the various competition stages. The rate of intake is disappointing. I agree with the Deputy opposite entirely on that. It reflects a number of factors, including the time the recruitment process took place, security clearances in particular, the high rate of no-shows at various stages throughout the induction campaign, the priority of keeping PDF recruitment at an appropriate level and the overhead of safe and effective training places on the resources of the PDF. While there have been a large number of applications to join the RDF, the resilience of the panel has proven to be very low.

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