Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 March 2023
590. Deputy Joe O'Brien asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence the number of prospective members of the Reserve Defence Force currently awaiting an induction medical assessment; how long the average waiting time for an assessment is; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12676/23]
View answerA 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:
|
Total |
|
|
Part 1 Medical Required |
489 |
|
Part 2 Medical Required |
464 |
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 progress on this matter is welcome, I have nevertheless asked my officials to engage with the military authorities with a view to identifying additional measures to address the issues relating to the medical assessments element of the induction process.
