Patrick Nulty (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 138: To ask the Minister for Defence if his attention has been drawn to the impact of the recruitment ban on the Reserve Defence Forces; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29881/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Recruitment to the Reserve Defence Force (RDF) is ongoing but limited due to resource constraints. The current budgetary provision provides for approximately 30,000 paid training mandays. In 2011 and 2012, I sanctioned paid training mandays to include support for the training of new recruits to the RDF. This was sufficient to train approximately 400 recruits during 2011 and 2012. The military authorities manage recruitment in this context. The numbers actually enlisted in any one year may not reflect the numbers of recruits trained in that year. In 2011 there were a total of 267 reservists enlisted and up to the end of May 2012 there have been a total of 85 enlistments to the RDF.