Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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595. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence , further to Parliamentary Question No. 923 of 14 June 2022, if there has been progress on clearing the backlog of medical exams for the Defence Forces Army Reserves; when the plan for the revitalisation of the Defence Forces Army Reserves will be published; and if there is a timeline for the establishment of the office of Defence Forces Army Reserves affairs. [13033/23]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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A recruitment drive for the RDF was launched in March 2022, which was advertised across a number of media channels while Recruit Liaison Officers across the RDF conducted local recruitment to attract applicants for this campaign.

Over 1,000 applications were received during this window, which is very encouraging, and the majority of those applications (800+) have now gone through the initial assessment stages and are currently moving to the medicals process.

More specifically the figures stand as follows:

It is noted that the same resources are used for PDF recruitment and this must remain a priority. It is difficult to determine a reliable average time for the medical assessments due to the bifurcated nature of the process, that is to say it is a two step process with time variations between those two stages.

Following discussions regarding the delays posed by the medicals stage of the recruitment process, the Central Medical Unit (CMU) allocated 225 medicals to Reserve applicants. Applicants from 2020 and 2021 were contacted by phone to ask if they still wanted their application to be considered. Approximately 220 of these applicants wished to continue. The backlogged applicants were offered medicals first. The majority of these Medical Part 1s are now completed.

In order to progress the applicants through the recruitment process, the Military Authorities in conjunction with the CMU and Office of the Reserve, agreed that the CMU would allocate batches of medicals to Reserve recruitment.

With regard to Part 2 medicals, a proposal was approved on 9 December 2022 to outsource Part 2 medicals, for both inductees and existing members over a four-year period for both the PDF and the RDF, amounting to 10,200 medicals in total across three lots (Dublin, DFTC, Cork).

It is planned to include 600 RDF induction medicals per year in this figure, which would amount to 2,400 over the lifetime of the proposed contract.

This proposal has now gone to Tender. It is hoped that medicals facilitated by this contract will commence in the second quarter of 2023.

To date since the recruitment drive last year, 94 RDF recruits have been inducted into the Defence Forces with further inductions scheduled, and the military authorities have additionally advised me that once the body of work arising from last year's campaign is completed, consideration will be given to the launch of a further recruitment initiative in mid-2023.

While the progress is welcome, I fully appreciate the necessity however expedite the induction process for the Reserve, including around the medical assessment element and I have asked my officials to engage with the military authorities to examine possible further measures.

A key enabler in the recruitment drive and the revitalisation of the Reserve Defence Force overall will be the establishment of the Office of Reserve Affairs. The aim to ‘Revitalise the Reserve Defence Force’ was one of five core areas and associated strategic objectives identified following Government approval to move to ‘Level of Ambition 2’ as set out in the capability framework devised by the Commission on the Defence Forces. One specific early action on this is the establishment of an Office of Reserve Affairs (ORA) with the priority objective of developing a regeneration plan for the Reserve Defence Force. Work on the establishment of this Office has commenced.

It is my intention that the momentum behind the regeneration of the RDF will be maintained throughout 2023 and beyond, thereby enabling us, going forward, to create a Reserve Defence Force that can seamlessly train, operate and deploy with the Permanent Defence Force, both nationally and internationally.