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 6 o’clock
(Speaker Continuing)
[Deputy Paul Kehoe:   ] It must be remembered that membership of the RDF is voluntary and strength levels are ultimately dependent on how many people volunteer for it in any given calendar year and commit to ongoing active participation in training and other activities.
With regard to Garda clearance, as I advised the Deputy recently, applicants to the Reserve Defence Forces are vetted by the Garda central vetting unit as part of the recruitment process. Processing times for vetting of applications can take up to 12 weeks on average. The Deputy will appreciate that in some cases additional inquiries may be necessary and this may result in processing times in excess of the average. For security and operational reasons the Defence Forces cannot comment on vetting processes in individual cases.
Deputy Lisa Chambers: I will outline some of the scenarios I have come across. A number of applicants began the fitness testing and interview process in October 2015. Their Garda clearance forms went in after that in October-November 2015 but some of them have still not heard back. The Minister of State outlined to me that the vetting process rests with the Garda Síochána. I submitted questions to the Minister for Justice and Equality on this very issue and asked her what the turnaround times were for Garda vetting. I was told that the average turnaround time was not 12 weeks but four weeks for 80% of applications. She told me that there were certain circumstances in which additional information may be required and that time could be extended. The 12 weeks that the Minister of State just stated does not marry with the four weeks stated by the Minister for Justice and Equality this month. The Minister for Justice and Equality told me that 80% of applications are dealt with within that four-week period, so it does not explain the ongoing huge delays. Between October-November 2015 and June 2016 some applicants have not heard back. It appears that the issue does not rest with the Garda Síochána unless all of the Reserve applications happen to sit in that 20% that could potentially take longer. Will the Minister of State please explain why he has told me 12 weeks when the Minister for Justice and Equality has told me four weeks?
Deputy Paul Kehoe: I assure the Deputy that neither the Defence Forces nor the Department are holding up applications to the Reserve Defence Forces. As the Deputy is aware, when one applies for the Reserve Defence Forces, one is going into a specific area. I will check with the Minister for Justice and Equality what the average waiting time on applications for Garda clearance is. Given the importance of ensuring the members of the Reserve are fully security cleared before becoming members of the Defence Forces, it would not be appropriate for me to intervene in this process or to seek for such requests to be expedited nor would it be appropriate for me to seek to have specific applications accorded priority over others. I assure the Deputy that I will look into this. I have still to meet with the recruitment section of the Defence Forces. The Deputy raised this with me at a previous meeting and I will come back to her with a reply.
Deputy Lisa Chambers: I have never suggested that applications are being withheld by any particular organisation or individual. I am asking the Minister of State to investigate this because it appears that Reserve Defence Forces applications are taking much longer than anybody would expect. I have the response issued to me on 14 June 2016 by the Minister for Justice and Equality which outlines the number of applications received for the past three years. It shows clearly, in black and white, that 80% of applications are processed within four weeks. The Minister was very clear on that. I can give that to the Minister of State so that he does not need to double check it with the Minister, although he should feel free to do so. Will the Minister come back to me and tell me why those delays are happening? If they are not happening within the Department of Defence or within the Defence Forces but somewhere else, we need to identity from where the problem is originating so we can fix it. If we do not know what is causing the problem, it will persist.
From talking to individuals who have actually applied - people I know - I can tell the Minister of State that they are still waiting on responses to applications they submitted in November 2015. It is simply not good enough because those people are currently lost to the organisation. They will not come back to us again. They are very good young people who want to volunteer but we are not letting them volunteer because we are not processing their applications.
Acting Chairman (Deputy Jim Daly): I ask Deputies to observe the clock. If everybody takes a minute, that is five minutes, and it will deny another Member the time to ask a question. Deputies should keep within the time limits on the clock.
Deputy Paul Kehoe: I am as anxious as the Deputy to make sure we bring as many participants into the Reserve Defence Forces as possible. We have some very fine people in the Reserve Defence Forces. If a person talks to me about joining the Army, I always encourage them to join the Reserve first and to see at first hand exactly what is involved in military and defence life. The person gets a first-hand experience of that.
I will come back to the Deputy once I have met with the recruitment section in the Defence Forces to see what the challenges are in the process. Everyone should be treated fairly and equally in Garda vetting. I am not sure if there is any hold up in Garda vetting for applications to the Reserve Defence Forces but I will check it out and revert to the Deputy.
Partnership for Peace
17. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if he will attend the North Atlantic TreatyOrganisation, NATO, summit which takes place on 8 and 9 July 2016 in Warsaw; and if he will review Ireland's membership of NATO's so-called Partnership for Peace. [17162/16]
Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh: The purpose of the question is to ask the Minister for Defence why he would consider an invitation to attend or partake in the July NATO summit? Will he now set in motion Ireland's withdrawal from NATO's Partnership for Peace?
Deputy Paul Kehoe: Ireland's co-operation with NATO is conducted through the Partnership for Peace, which we joined in 1999 following approval by Dáil Éireann. Ireland’s purpose in participating in the Partnership for Peace is to improve Defence Forces capabilities and to ensure that our Defence Forces are interoperable with the forces of other states engaged in UN mandated crisis management operations. Ireland’s continued participation in Partnership for Peace was reaffirmed in the White Paper on Defence, which was published last year.
At the NATO summit in Wales in September 2014, the establishment of the Partnership Interoperability Initiative was endorsed with the purpose of reinforcing the alliance's commitment to co-operative security and interoperable capability development. As a participant in the Partnership for Peace, Ireland is also a member of the Partnership Interoperability Initiative which is now referred to as the Partnership Interoperability Platform. For Ireland, this platform provides a format for consulting and working on common interoperability challenges to enhance our ability to operate with partners in future crisis management operations.
Defence Ministers from partners and allies participating in the interoperability platform have been invited to attend a meeting of participating states at the Warsaw summit. Given the importance of interoperability for force protection and effectiveness on operations, I plan to attend that meeting on 8 and 9 July 2016. As Ireland is not a member of NATO, the question of attendance at the NATO summit itself does not arise.
Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh: Given that we are already committed to many UN mandated missions, for which we have a proud record that is acknowledged throughout the world, and also, regretfully, that we have committed to the EU battlegroup, why in God's name would we have anything to do with NATO or its Partnership for Peace at this stage? I see that another Deputy has tabled a question on that issue. Why would we commit money - it costs the Irish taxpayer money to remain committed to the Partnership for Peace - given our commitments elsewhere which are honourable and should be continued in the UN mandated group? Given that NATO is a Cold War relic and should have been disbanded many years ago, it should not be allowed to further threaten the stability of the EU or the stability of the world. Will the Minister of State start the process to withdraw from NATO's Partnership for Peace at this stage?
Deputy Paul Kehoe: We have no plans to withdraw. The primary aim of our Partnership for Peace membership is to enhance the Defence Forces' interoperability with other professional military forces for the purpose of engaging in UN authorised peacekeeping and peace support operations led by the UN, EU or NATO. Participation in Partnership for Peace is fundamental to Ireland being able to meet its obligations in providing professional peacekeepers for international crisis management and peacekeeping operations mandated by the UN. |
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