Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When the Minister establishes the commission and appoints members, I hope that a person with detailed knowledge and association with the Reserve Defence Force over the years will be considered for membership of the commission. Often the Reserve is not given the attention it needs.

I fully agree and fully understand that we must be guided by the health and safety guidelines. That is absolutely essential. If we do not have some level of training, however, there will be a big wastage of skills. It would be very difficult to replace those skills and that knowledge in the future.

Unfortunately, given the medical opinions, we will all be living in a Covid-19 environment for some time. We must develop new ways of training and doing business. I appeal to the Minister to give this matter attention. If engagement is not resumed for the Reserve Defence Force its value and the recognition it needs in society will be lost also. It is extremely important, within the safety and health guidelines, that training activity is resumed if at all possible.

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