Brendan Smith urges boost to Reserve Defence Forces recruitment

Minister, I believe that it's essential that we have the maximum possible enlistment in the Reserve Defence Forces and I fully appreciate that recruitment during a pandemic is not straightforward. You would have heard me say, Minister, in this House and a committee that the role of the Reserve Defence Forces and prior to that the FCA has never been given due recognition. The area that I come from, I'm very conscious of the good work done by the FCA and the Reserve Defence Forces in ensuring an outlet for particularly young, vulnerable people who may have got into the wrong company and be associated with undesirable groups in the past. The FCA did an exceptional work in ensuring a good outlet for many young people and subsequently those people were able to go on to have distinguished careers in the permanent defence forces. Minister. Deputy, thank you and I know you have a particular interest in this area. The Government recognises the important role that the Reserve Defence Force plays in contributing to Ireland's defence capability. The White Paper on Defence Defence Force sets out a blueprint for the development of the RDF and that their primary role is to support the permanent defence forces in crisis situations. The Army Reserve and the Naval Service Reserve have a combined establishment of 4,069 personnel, 3,869 for the Army Reserve and 200 for the Naval Reserve. A key ongoing challenge for the AR and the NSR is to recruit and retain personnel. I'm aware that there continues to be a shortfall between the current strength figures and those of the establishment and that's something that we're trying to address. I'm advised by the military authorities that recruitment is ongoing. I'm advised by the military authorities that recruitment is ongoing and a recruitment campaign for the Army Reserve and Naval Service Reserve was opened in March of this year. Assessments are continuing at formation level and while there is no specific dates of yet, it is anticipated that another recruitment campaign will be opened in the autumn of 2020 with two further recruitment campaigns in the spring and autumn of next year. I understand that 2018 and 2019 saw inductions totaling 142 and 144 respectively into the RDF. However, the ability to conduct RDF inductions this year has been impacted by COVID-19, the public health pandemic. Nevertheless, 63 additional new members have been inducted thus far this year, with 57 inducted into the Army Reserve and six into the Naval Reserve. Supports being provided to maximise recruitment to the Reserve include the use of social media and outreach activities by RDF members. The PDF recruitment exit interviews now also contain information on applying for membership of the RDF. The government remains committed to increasing the strength of the AR and NSR and to further development of the Reserve, as I mentioned earlier. Thank you, Minister. Deputy? Thank you, Minister. Thank you, Minister. Thank you, Minister. Minister, it is essential that the recruitment is more substantial than the number of retirements. I understand that there have been substantial retirements over the past few years and, naturally, that will occur again. Minister, I advocated at a committee previously that there is a more aggressive recruitment campaign needed, maybe focus on the second-level schools, the colleges for further education and also third-level colleges as well. Minister, at the present time, I do not think there is engagement between the Department of Defence Forces and the Reserve because of the pandemic. It is important that there would be a plan put in place for returning to training with all the necessary safety guidelines in place. The Defence Forces need to have that engagement with the Reserve members and members need to be involved in training. If there is not training, ongoing activity, then skills will be lost and it will be very difficult to replace such skills. Minister, I would like to have an assurance that whatever level of training within the necessary safety guidelines can be put back in place. I understand and I know some young people who are training as members of the Department of Defence Forces at the present time. I think there should be some engagement and some level of training for the Reserve members as well. Minister? Yes, look, I take that point but we also have to do it within the parameters and constraints of public health guidelines and so on. I mean that is even impacting on my ability to be able to visit barracks at the moment in terms of the number of serving personnel that I can meet at any one time. And, you know, we all have to try to lead by example in relation to responding to the pandemic in a responsible way and that has impacted on some of the issues that you have referred to. But, you know, we do have a single force concept committed to in the White Paper which means that Reserve personnel should be training in a way that is complementary to the Department of Defence Forces and ensures that there is complete interoperability between the two so that one is supporting the other. And what I would like to do in the coming months and also will be asking the upcoming commission to do is to look at the role of the Reserve, how we can enhance that and how we can make it a more exciting option and choice for people who may want to join. But what I mean by that is, you know, I am certainly open to looking at, certainly in terms of specialties that can help to fill gaps and support in a complementary way, the Department of Defence Forces, allowing reserve personnel to potentially work overseas as well, which I think would significantly add to the to the attractiveness of joining. Minister, when you establish your commission and appoint members, I hope some some person with detailed knowledge or in association with the Reserve Defence Forces over the years that such a person could be considered for membership with that Commission as well, because oftentimes the Reserve is not given the attention that it needs. Minister, I fully agree and fully understand that we have to be guided by all safety and health guidelines. That's absolutely essential. But at the same time, if we don't have some level of training, we're going to have a big wastage of skills and it would be very difficult to replace those skills and that knowledge in the future. And Minister, unfortunately, by all medical opinion of that, we're going to be living in a COVID environment for some time. So we have to develop new ways of training, new ways of doing business. So I'd appeal to your Minister to give this attention because if engagement is not resumed for the Reserve Defence Forces, its value and the recognition that it needs in our society will be lost as well. So it's extremely important that within the safety and health guidelines, that we have activity resumed if at all possible. Minister, conclude. I mean, people don't join the Reserve to do nothing. You know, they're not just there to say that they're a member of the Reserve. They join up because they want to be part of the action and want to make a contribution through training and obviously putting that training to use. That's why we have a Reserve. And, you know, as of the end of August, the effective strength of the Army Reserve was 1,501 personnel and the Naval Reserve 123. So, you know, we are significantly below where we would like to be in terms of the establishment numbers that we want to achieve. And so this is a combination of a really proactive recruitment campaign that's quite public, targeting the right people and also offering through that communications campaign, you know, options that will interest and excite people to encourage people to join up. And I think we're going to focus on both.