Ireland has the second-largest and most poorly policed sea area in Europe. Belgium, which has a sea area 32 times smaller than that of this State, has a larger navy. And a ship aiming to gain undetected access to Europe has a chance of success more than 20 times better via the Irish maritime corridor.
It is against this background - and the increasing demands of fisheries protection, drug interdiction and search-and-rescue - that the Price Waterhouse review of the Naval Service and Air Corps was commissioned two years ago as part of the Government's Efficiency Audit Group review of the Defence Forces.
After much deliberation, and a complete recommissioning by the steering group answerable to the Taoiseach's Department, the review was presented to the Efficiency Audit Group in February this year, but still awaits publication. If and when accepted by Government, it will require an implementation plan for both services.
The separate study of the two defence wings was agreed to on the basis that the original Price Waterhouse review of 1994 concentrated mainly on the Army. That review recommended a cut of 3,000 in overall Defence Forces strength and Army barracks closures, but took little account of the very different roles and non-military taskings of both the Naval Service and Air Corps.
In its submission to the new review, the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers stressed the increasing burden of work in Ireland's 132,000-squaremile fishery zone for the Naval Service's main task. It recommended a 12-ship fleet with a crew ratio of 1.5 per craft, on the basis that the workload had increased by an estimated 30 per cent since Spanish and Portuguese fishing vessels were given access to the "Irish Box" in 1996.
It emphasised the cost-effectiveness of multi-tasking, a factor acknowledged by the consultants. Given that fish worth some £2 billion is caught annually by non-Irish vessels in Irish waters, the fishery protection role is also of direct economic benefit. Two years ago, for instance, the arrest of Japanese vessels took in fines of £800,000.
The review comes at a time when numbers in both wings are falling rapidly due to opportunities outside and low morale within the Defence Forces generally. A severe shortage of bridge watch keepers resulted in advertisements being placed in both Ireland and Britain for direct entrants in March. Such a response is regarded by the representative organisations as a sticking-plaster approach.
