Former defence minister calls for budget to address Naval Service personnel crisis

A former minister of State for defence has said the Government should consider introducing a specific financial “reward” for members of the Naval Service in the forthcoming budget, to address its personnel crisis.

The comments follow news that the Naval Service was withdrawing two more ships from service due to crew shortages, the latest reduction in capability that has seen the fleet drop from nine to two active ships over four years.

While the LÉ James Joyce and the LÉ George Bernard Shaw are placed in reserve, crews from those ships will help man the force’s two remaining active vessels, the LÉ William Butler Yeats and the LÉ Samuel Beckett.

Representative organisations have long warned of the personnel crisis facing the Naval Service, with difficulty recruiting and retaining members meaning Ireland will now have fewer ships available for patrols than at any point since the 1970s.

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Fine Gael TD Paul Kehoe, a former minister of State for defence, suggested targeted measures such as a financial “reward” for Naval Service personnel should be considered in October’s budget.

The Wexford TD said he was hesitant to comment on the matter, given he was no longer responsible for the defence portfolio.

However, he said Minister for Finance Michael McGrath and Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe should look at specific measures to improve recruitment and retention of personnel in the Naval Service.

Life for members of the Naval Service is often “different” to those in the Army and Air Corps stationed in barracks, as they missed out on family life and other events while at sea, he told The Irish Times.

Michael O’Sullivan, a former Garda assistant commissioner, said Ireland’s efforts to tackle drug smuggling into Europe would be at a “disadvantage” the fewer naval ships it had active.

The former senior Garda previously led the Maritime Analysis and Operation Centre, an agency that co-ordinates anti-smuggling operations across seven European Union nations.

Ireland is in a “unique position” due to its geography, allowing it to get vessels out to ships suspected of involvement in smuggling drugs from South America more quickly than others, he said.

Mr O’Sullivan said more Naval Service ships being taken out of service would hamper efforts targeting smuggling operations. “It is to the advantage of drug traffickers, if you don’t have the [naval] assets, you won’t get the results,” he said.

In the first five months of this year the Naval Service had to cancel 39 patrols due to staffing issues, according to Department of Defence figures released in response to a parliamentary question in June.

Cathal Berry, an Independent TD who previously served in the Army Ranger wing, said the crisis facing the Naval Service had been “normalised” in recent years.

The Kildare South TD said the issue was “massively” affecting Ireland’s reputation internationally and among European partners. “It’s like the house is burning down and the Government is standing there watching it,” he said.

Mr Berry said the “core problem” was the offshore allowance for Naval Service members at sea was far too low.

Conor King, general secretary of the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, said the retention crisis had now become a “retention catastrophe”.

If conditions were not improved more personnel would continue to leave than could be replaced by recruitment campaigns, he said. “You can’t recruit your way out of a retention crisis ... The key has to be retaining people that it has cost an awful lot of money to train,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Tánaiste Micheál Martin, who is also Minister for Defence, said the Naval Service was “continuing to conduct maritime surveillance and fisheries patrols in Irish coastal waters”.

The Government had “acknowledged the recruitment and retention difficulties in the Naval Service, which present ongoing challenges,” she said. The spokeswoman added work was ongoing to address the challenges facing the Naval Service.