O'Dea planning changes in Army recruitment

Steyr

Conor Lally in Ebl es Saqi, Lebanon
MIDDLE EAST: Difficulties attracting doctors and other professionals to the Defence Forces could be overcome by encouraging them to join the reserve force and sending them on missions overseas, Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea has said.
Legislative changes would need to be introduced to ensure any volunteer's full-time position in the workplace was open for them when their foreign tour of duty was over, Mr O'Dea said.
"We are in the process of developing a system at the moment. But a system would have to be worked out in advance to keep their jobs open. Otherwise how would you get people like well- paid architects and engineers to give up their jobs?"
Reservists could be serving overseas within two years, before the end of 2009 when the White Paper, the Defence Forces reforms programme, comes to an end, he said. Specialists such as chefs and trained drivers could also be included in the scheme.
Mr O'Dea made his comments during a visit to Irish troops yesterday at Camp Ida in southeastern Lebanon. Some 158 Irish troops form a joint battalion with 205 Finns in the 12,000-strong United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil). The Irish are providing security for Finnish teams that have been carrying out bomb disposal and reconstruction work in the region.
About 80 per cent of the Finnish deployment are engineers who have been specifically targeted by their full-time army for a one-year deployment in Lebanon because of their skill set. The only full-time Finnish officers in the region are senior personnel deployed to manage their part-time colleagues. The Irish and Finns have already begun clearing cluster bombs from an area just outside the village of Khiam, close to the Israeli border and Camp Ida.
The bombs were dropped by the Israelis in the last days of the war with Hizbullah last summer. Just over 110 have been found and detonated in the last three weeks.
Mr O'Dea suggested Ireland could learn from the Finns' targeted recruitment programme.
"Obviously the big advantage of the Finnish system is that they can specifically advertise for four JCB drivers, or three engineers and so on, depending on what their needs are. These people can actually apply for a job."
Finnish sources in Camp Ida said their army relied heavily on reservists because it could not afford to recruit young Finns and then send them to university to study engineering and other specialities. In Finland, if a reservist agrees to go abroad for a year his or her job must, by law, be offered to them on their return.
Mr O'Dea said the Defence Forces in recent years had experienced difficulties recruiting medical doctors. If trained doctors were willing to go away with the Defence Forces as reservists some of these difficulties might be overcome. Irish troops are due to withdraw from the UN mission in Liberia in May and their continued involvement in Lebanon is due to be reviewed in October, 12 months after their deployment.
© 2007 The Irish Times

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/wor...185291708.html

testicle

Itchy ??????

Kevin. B

Finally...
At least he has his head in the right place now...

Mick86

Kevin. B wrote:

Finally...
At least he has his head in the right place now...

Are you kidding. The way he's talking you'd swear this was some stunning new revelation that nobody ever thought of before.

Sputnik

Mick86 wrote:

Are you kidding. The way he's talking you'd swear this was some stunning new revelation that nobody ever thought of before.

Harldy a surprising thing from a politician. Obviously this should have been long since implemented but the fact that it's being seriously considered is good news.

Bam Bam

In fairness the Reserve is full of students, studying engineering and the sciences not to mention qualified persons and there's a good few tradesmen in it too.

The Reserve does outclass the PDF in general skillsets.

babybundy

and in my opinion the reserves have more heart than the pdf i'm not saying the pdf have no heart but they do it for money the reserves do it as volunteers

Judt

babybundy wrote:

and in my opinion the reserves have more heart than the pdf i'm not saying the pdf have no heart but they do it for money the reserves do it as volunteers

Ahem. Professionals who are in it for the money tend to make the best soldiers Ask the Brits, they've been doing it successfully for yonks. Then ask the French, or the Russians, who rely (or used to, with the French) on a love of the country to keep the army strong.

Anyways, that point aside the RDF does have a lot of students on its payroll, but how many qualified professionals with real world experience? How many doctors would even have the time currently to train with the RDF? Or the inclination.... I think the DOD will have to pay big bucks to get these sorts of professionals into a uniform for a year or two, and even then they would be just that: Doctors and professionals in uniform. You can teach them how to fire a Steyr, but if things start hitting the fan then I think you'd want a couple of PDF men for every professional to ensure their well trained and valuable arses don't get a few speed holes in them.

It's a good idea, but given the DOD's proven track record at organising piss ups in brewery's I can see it working well. And there's probably going to be a lot of mumbling from non-professional (err, skilled) RDF people who have been in training for years who won't be allowed to go overseas... If they were, then we'd essentially have to pull everyone going on a tour for a good year to train them (basic, plus UN stuff) and then send them overseas. Why bother with the grunts when you have the PDF for that, and it'll probably get quite expensive - by the time you pay the doctor and buy off his employers - to pull a doctor out for a year, only 6 months of which you could actually have him or her overseas.

Good idea, but it's the detail of how they'll do it that'll be interesting to me.

Hard Larry

babybundy wrote:

and in my opinion the reserves have more heart than the pdf i'm not saying the pdf have no heart but they do it for money the reserves do it as volunteers

I didn't see many soldiers counting the change in thier pockets while they were getting shelled/shot at/bombed by the Israelis in sunny South Lebanon. Can't say I saw many troops on to their accountants while they held the line during the riots in Kosovo either.

If you knew the things that have been done in the name of the UN and Ireland by our soldiers it would turn your stomach.

There is no finer warrior on the planet than an Irish Soldier deprived of
1) Beer
2) Sex (Non-Manual Kind)
3) The ability to go home when he/she wants

If reservists do go on Overseas missions, I wish them the best of luck and a safe peaceful trip....
but God forbid the **** goes down you get caught up in it, better hope and pray the QRF arent too busy rolling around in all their loot to come save the day.

cushtac

The PDF are all volunteers, so they must want to do the job in the first place. If money was their only motivation they'd have gotten cushier, better-paid jobs in civvy street.

babybundy

ok i apologise if i offended anyone wasnt meant but there are alot of bodies in the pdf who such a prick of an attiude while in uniform

Judt

babybundy wrote:

ok i apologise if i offended anyone wasnt meant but there are alot of bodies in the pdf who such a prick of an attiude while in uniform

That's got to do with a whole lot of other factors. It's the three box thing: An experienced operator will wait for you to take the first so he can take the second and you the third. That's a whole other institutional discussion.

Hagar

Hard Larry wrote:

If you knew the things that have been done in the name of the UN and Ireland by our soldiers it would turn your stomach.

That statement slanders every soldier who has served the UN on behalf of Ireland.
Please back it up or retract it.

muletide

Hagar, I think he was saying it in a positive way, he is defending soldiers overseas service record.

Hard Larry

muletide wrote:

Hagar, I think he was saying it in a positive way, he is defending soldiers overseas service record.

Yep, I was Muletide.

I thought it was straight foward enough. Our Defence Forces have a damn fine record overseas and every soldier has his/her proudest moment from their missions...but they also have a collection of stories as long as their arm that they wont exactly bring up as a topic of conversation during cocktails. Wether it be a day were they were suffering from total depression and just wanted to go home or searching through some Octogenarians belongings looking for weapons while he lay on his death bed watching you. Just some examples...

Need more proof?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qana

Qana 1996 - The Irish lads who had to clean up that were issued yard brushes and black sacks....not exactly something you write home to the wife and kids about.

My original post was in defence of Irelands Peacekeepers I hope this post clears up any doubt on where I stand on the matter.

If anyone brings into question the 'Heart' of our soldiers I'll be the first one to step up to the plate to defend them...and I'll bring plenty of ammunition too.

Staying on topic with RDF likely to travel overseas in the future...i'll just say this...don't wish too hard for what you want...as you just might get it.

Hagar

Fair enough so, the sentence is amiguous though, it can be read either way.
Lean leis an clár.