Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

One of the areas the Deputy referred to was recruitment. I had a long conversation with the RDFRA about this and I have asked my Department, the Defence Forces and RDFRA to discuss what RDFRA wants out of the recruitment process, the way in which it wants it run and, if it has any ideas in this regard, to bring them to both the relevant civil and military bodies and ensure RDFRA knows the ways and means by which it wants to bring them to fruition. I am very open to that. I have stated on numerous occasions that if there are people who have specialisations in RDFRA, they should be given the opportunity to go overseas. This came under the single force concept as well. However, it is difficult for people to get time off work and so on. These people are normally in permanent full-time employment and for them to get five or six months off work can be quite difficult at times. I hope the decisions we made this year on the streamlining of security checks will make a difference for 2018. It is totally unacceptable that someone wishing to join the Reserve Defence Force is left hanging for five, six, seven, eight or nine months before he or she is notified of the decision as to whether he or she is being taken on, and I have stated this on numerous occasions. This is one of the reasons I have streamlined-----

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