Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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255. To ask the Minister for Defence if there is any legislative impediment to members of the Reserve Defence Force serving overseas alongside their colleagues in the Permanent Defence Forces; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7104/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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There is no provision in the Defence Acts to allow Reserve Defence Force (RDF) personnel to be deployed overseas. However, it was identified in the White Paper 2015 that there may be professional skills that on occasion may not be readily available in the Permanent Defence Force (PDF). Arising from the fact that there may be individual members of the RDF, who by virtue of their professional civilian qualifications have the competence to undertake such specialised tasks , the Government have decided that a panel of such professionally qualified members of the RDF, to be known as the Specialist Reserve should be established.

As part of the White Paper implementation process, a skills survey will be undertaken to identify those individuals in the First Line Reserve (FLR), Army Reserve (AR) and Naval Service Reserve (NSR) with relevant professional qualifications and their potential availability. In tandem with this project, my Department will identify the options available to underpin the engagement of the members of the Specialist Reserve, whose personal circumstances would allow them to undertake required tasks, including on overseas missions.

As also alluded to in the White Paper, the Secretary General, in conjunction with the Chief of Staff, will bring forward proposals for the operation of a scheme that affords a small number of suitably qualified members of the RDF, whose personal circumstances allow them to do so, the opportunity to undertake operational duties at home and overseas.