Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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295. To ask the Minister for Defence the number of persons serving in the Reserve Defence Forces and the full-year cost of increasing this number to 3,000, 3,500, 4,000, 4,500, 5,000 and 5,500, respectively. [45710/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The recently published White Paper on Defence sets out a developmental path for the Reserve Defence Force (RDF). It provides that the overarching establishment of the Army Reserve (AR) and Naval Service Reserve (NSR) be set at 4,169 personnel, consisting of 3,869 Army Reservists and the expansion of the establishment of the four NSR Units from currently 200 personnel to 300.

The current total strength for the Reserve Defence Force is 2,329 and subhead A5 provides for a budget of€2.15million, of which €2.068 million encompasses Paid Training. The budget is sufficient having regard to the existing strength of the AR and NSR.

A key challenge is to recruit and train sufficient personnel to meet the establishment provided in the White Paper. A major recruitment campaign is ongoing. Following a review of last year’s campaign, a number of changes were introduced. In this context, it is important to note that it is not budgetary constraints that dictate numbers in the Reserve and there are sufficient budgetary resources allocated. In fact, there has been an under-spend in recent years. The Defence Forces will continue to strive to improve the level of RDF recruitment in 2016 and this remains a key challenge.

Indicative costs of meeting the Paid Training requirements for the numbers outlined in the question are outlined in the following table.

It should be noted that n umbers beyond the establishment would require a reappraisal of organisational structures and levels and costs of PDF support required. Given the difficulties in recruitment, this is not envisaged.