Abstract
The security implications of Brexit, the potential resurgence of violence in Northern Ireland, a Defence Forces personnel retention crisis, cyber-attacks against governmental infrastructure, the Covid-19 Pandemic, and the Russo-Ukrainian War have all created significant challenges for the Defence Forces at a time when both the Permanent Defence Forces and the Reserve Defence Forces are at their lowest respective strengths in the history of the State. With naval vessels unable to put to sea due to crew shortages and the Air Corps similarly unable to defend Irish airspace, the discussion of defence reforms in Ireland has never been more heightened, especially with the 2022 publication of the long-awaited Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces. Amounting to the most in-depth introspective analysis of Irish defence since the foundation of the State, the Commission’s Report advocated sweeping reforms across the Defence Forces; tripling defence spending, reforming command and control arrangements, additional naval vessels, purchasing modern fighter interceptors, and “the revitalisation of the Reserve Defence Force." The creation of a Reserve “that can seamlessly train, operate and deploy with the Permanent Defence Force, nationally and internationally,” was one of the Commission's five core recommendations. In light of this, this chapter argues for the revitalization of the Army Reserve by moving away from the current Single Force Concept to a Total Force Policy. It proposes a new force structure for the Reserve, de-coupled from that of the Army, with the Reserve transitioning from a languishing infantry-dominated force to a vital specialist and skills focused component of the Defence Forces. This chapter proposes a solution to a legacy Irish defence problem, a reimagined Army Reserve tailored to counter real-world threats and challenges, the reasoning underpinning it, the contribution it could make to the Defence Forces, and the policy and legal requirements required to transition to it. The Commission on the Defence Forces argues for revitalizing the Army Reserve, herein lies one iteration of what that could look like.
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Notes
- 1.
Irish Defence Forces, Administrative Order 01/2013: Implementation of the Defence Forces Reorganisation Plan Reserve Defence Forces. Defence Forces Administrative Document, 2013.
- 2.
Jonathan Carroll, “Conceptually Ambitious, Hardly Novel, and Currently Failing: The Irish Army Reserve in the Single Force Concept,” The Journal of Military History and Defence Studies 1, no. 1 (2020), 232–233.
- 3.
Sean O’Riordan, “Damning Results from Defence Forces Exit Survey,” Irish Examiner, June 13, 2021.
- 4.
Niall O’Connor, “Pop Up Recruitment Centre in Dublin Tomorrow for Naval Service to find 200 Recruits so ships can go to Sea,” thejournal.ie, June 25, 2021.
- 5.
Ken Foxe, “Not Enough Military Pilots to Maintain Airborne Security,” The Times, January 4, 2021.
- 6.
Reserve Defence Forces Representative Association (RDFRA) Opening Statement to the Commission on Defence Forces, February 16, 2021, 1.
- 7.
See the chapters within this volume by Vice Admiral Mark Mellett, Dr. Tom Clonan, and Eoin McNamara.
- 8.
Commission on the Defence Forces, Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces (Dublin, Government Printing Office, 2022), v.
- 9.
Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces, xiii.
- 10.
Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (COVID-19) Act 2020 (Ireland), Section 27.
- 11.
Carl von Clausewitz, On War, edited and translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 210.
- 12.
Franklin D. Margiotta (ed.), Brassey’s Encyclopedia of Land Forces and Warfare (Washington, DC: Brassey’s—MacMillan Publishing, 1996), 882.
- 13.
Department of Defence, White Paper on Defence 2000 (Dublin: Department of Defence, 2000), 52–53.
- 14.
Department of Defence, White Paper on Defence 2015 (Dublin: Department of Defence, 2015), 97–100.
- 15.
See Carroll, “Conceptually Ambitious.”
- 16.
White Paper on Defence 2000, 52; RDFRA Opening Statement to the Commission on Defence Forces, 1.
- 17.
Emphasis added. Council of Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations, The United Kingdom Reserve Forces External Scrutiny Team Annual Report 2020 (London: The Council of RFCA’s, 2020), 7–8.
- 18.
Lieutenant General Sean McCann, Defence Forces Chief of Staff, Briefing to Irish General Staff, 20 November 2012.
- 19.
Colonel Dermot Hanifin, Defence Forces Director of Reserve Forces, “Directorate of Reserve Forces, Commission of Defence Review,” January 27, 2021.
- 20.
See approach to reserve land components in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Britain, and the United States.
- 21.
See Carroll, “Conceptually Ambitious,” and Jonathan Carroll, “Relying on the Goodwill of the Individual, and Luck: The Problematic Nature of Utilising the Army Reserve Skills Base in the Single Force Concept,” Defence Forces Review 16 (2019), 30–41.
- 22.
Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces, xxv.
- 23.
Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO), Commission on the Defence Forces Briefing Document, February 16, 2021, 8.
- 24.
David Lynch, “Helping to Defend the Nation from COVID-19,” The Medical Independent, March 30, 2020.
- 25.
(RACO), Commission Briefing Document, 8.
- 26.
The Training Battalion structure absorbs the reservists already assigned to the constituent training schools in the Military College, with additional companies designed to provide basic training, corps-specific training, or career progression courses, with the staffing levels based on the Officer’s and NCOs required to staff a four-platoon infantry company. In principle, this Training Battalion could train twelve platoons, with a staggered schedule throughout the year to cater for instructor availability and to reduce interference with reservist’s civilian employment.
- 27.
1st and 2nd Cavalry, and 1st Armoured Cavalry Squadrons, along with 1st Mechanised Infantry Company would retain reservists trained in utilizing the Mowag Piranha APCs, and both the 1st and 2nd Brigade Artillery Regiments, would reduce their reserve component to one reserve battery in each regiment.
- 28.
“Directorate of Reserve Forces, Commission of Defence Review,” 3.
- 29.
Ministry of Defence, Reserve Forces Review 2030 (London: Ministry of Defence, 2021), 43–47.
- 30.
British Army, “Reservists Mobilize for Operational Tour,” February 2, 2020, available from https://www.army.mod.uk/news-and-events/news/2020/02/reservists-mobilise-for-operational-tour/.
- 31.
O’Riordan, “Damning Results from Defence Forces Exit Survey.”
- 32.
(RACO), Commission Briefing Document, 3.
- 33.
Defence (Amendment) Bill 2020 (Ireland), Sections 14, 15, and 17. This Amendment to the existing Defence Acts has passed in the Dail and is currently awaiting debate in the Seanad. The amendments, if adopted, will allow reservists to serve on overseas deployments on UN peacekeeping operations, or with the EU Battlegroups.
- 34.
Conor Gallagher, “Defence Forces struggling to find Volunteers for Peacekeeping Missions,” Irish Times, July 5, 2021.
- 35.
Department of Defence, Defence Forces Annual Reports 2005–2014 (Newbridge: Department of Defence, 2005–2014).
- 36.
“Directorate of Reserve Forces, Commission of Defence Review,” 2.
- 37.
Department of Defence, “Tabular Statement: Substantive Strength of the Second Line Reserve,” December 31, 2020.
- 38.
“Directorate of Reserve Forces, Commission of Defence Review,” 6.
- 39.
“Directorate of Reserve Forces, Commission of Defence Review,” 6–7.
- 40.
“Directorate of Reserve Forces, Commission of Defence Review,” 3.
- 41.
PDFORRA, “Initial Submission of PDFORRA to the Commission on the Future of Defence, February 2021,” 23. Available from https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/0029c-public-consultation-commission-on-the-defence-forces/#representative-associations-and-trade-unions.
- 42.
Commandant John Durnin, “The Irish Defence Forces: Options for Future Humanitarian Operations,” 1 June 2001. Unpublished master’s thesis, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, KS.
- 43.
See Jonathan Carroll and Neil Richardson, “Training for the Expected, Educating for the Unknown: The Defence Forces Reserve Officer Training Program, a Proposal,” Defence Forces Review 18 (2021), 55–61.
- 44.
See Neil Richardson’s chapter on the Army Reserve within this volume.
- 45.
Department of Defence, “Tabular Statement: Substantive Strength of the Second Line Reserve,” December 31, 2020.
- 46.
Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces, 127.
- 47.
“Directorate of Reserve Forces, Commission of Defence Review,” 1.
- 48.
“Directorate of Reserve Forces, Commission of Defence Review,” 6.
- 49.
“Directorate of Reserve Forces, Commission of Defence Review,” 3.
- 50.
Lieutenant General Sean McCann, Defence Forces Chief of Staff, Briefing to Irish General Staff, 20 November 2012. Slides in possession of the author.
- 51.
(RACO), Commission Briefing Document, 3.
- 52.
Conor Gallagher, “Irish Peacekeeping Future: More Specialized, Complex, and Dangerous,” Irish Times, July 5, 2021; Conor Gallagher, “Defence Forces Struggling to Find Volunteers for Peacekeeping Missions,” Irish Times, July 5, 2021.
- 53.
Hannah McCarthy, “Army Numbers on Peacekeeping Missions Will Not Be Cut, Coveney Says,” Irish Times, July 7, 2021.
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Carroll, J. (2023). Revitalizing the Irish Army Reserve Post-Commission on the Defence Forces: Moving from the Single Force Concept to a Total Force Policy. In: Carroll, J., O'Neill, M.G., Williams, M. (eds) The EU, Irish Defence Forces and Contemporary Security. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07812-5_7
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