asked the Minister for Defence if he will now indicate what steps his Department propose to take to speed up the promotion of personnel of the Reserve.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Army Reserve Promotions.
Promotions are not made while the personnel concerned are not on permanent service, and the question of altering that position is not one which could be favourably considered.
Is the Minister aware of the fact that there is very considerable discontent amongst officers of the First Line Reserve in view of the fact that there does not seem to be any prospect of their being promoted beyond the stage of lieutenancy which they may have reached even before the end of the emergency? According to the regulations laid down, most of them would be nonogenarians before they could be promoted captains on the basis of the present regulations.
I am not aware of the discontent which the Deputy suggests is there. I think the Deputy will realise that it would be undesirable to promote persons who are on the Reserve. It is not intended to alter a situation which has existed over all the years.
I am not raising this by way of vexatious question to the Minister. I am putting it before the Minister, from facts well within my knowledge and that I hope are within his, that there is grave discontent in the Reserve Forces. It is not a question of promotion in the senior sense. It is a fact that some of these people were virtually on the edge of promotion within the emergency period and now, after having spent seven or eight years on the Reserve, they do not seem to have any prospect of even a captaincy in the Reserve.