Naval Service in hot water over critical shortage of 'Gordon Ramsays'
Live More Signalled To 18, Than And Have Service Increase Navy To Ed/alamy Has Requires The 16 Will Leave Chefs Fewer Intention Shortly This Two Picture: News The It Their Currently, As
The Naval Service is critically short of chefs and has been unable to fill a growing number of vacancies, despite a two-year recruitment campaign aimed at attracting professionals from the private sector.
Currently, the navy has 16 fewer chefs than it requires and this will shortly increase to 18, as two more have signalled their intention to leave the service.
This is putting added pressure on those left to feed sailors and fears have been raised it will become even more difficult to fill these posts because of a countrywide shortage of chefs in the private sector.
Despite the two-year campaign for so-called ‘Direct Entry’ recruitment, the Naval Service has not been able to get one single chef to come into its ranks from the private sector.
Setting up 'field kitchens' can be tricky for soldiers, but the job can sometimes be far more difficult for navy chefs when ships are out on patrols and they have to cook for the crew in gale-force conditions.
Mark Keane, president of PDForra, which represents enlisted personnel in the Naval Service, said more needs to be done to attract people into a cheffing career at sea, especially in terms of increased remuneration as they have to compete with the private sector.
“At present there is a chronic shortage of skilled chefs within the Naval Service. There has been an exodus of chefs departing over the last number of years, months and weeks. We have lost highly educated and motivated personnel to private industry,” Mr Keane said.
“Unfortunately a life on the high seas doesn't seem to be an attractive proposal for young budding Gordon Ramsays,” Mr Keane said.
Many navy chefs and other highly-trained personnel across the Defence Forces are “being headhunted” by private companies for their skills.
Mr Keane said in the case of Naval Service chefs, many have undertaken third-level courses in food science etc.
“This makes them very attractive to potential employers. Naturally enough, this places a greater strain on our members who are left to fill the vacancies and this has resulted in increased workload and an increased frequency of time spent away from home on patrol at sea,” he said.
Mr Keane, who works as chef with the Naval Service, said the Defence Forces is also having difficulty recruiting trained chefs.
He said a review needed to be undertaken to see how they can make the job more attractive in the Naval Service.