Naval Service strength at lowest ebb in 42 years 

There are just 841 personnel on the books at present, but the Irish Examiner understands this includes an unspecified number, (believed to be around 30) who have officially signalled they want to leave and are waiting their discharge papers.

This would bring the Naval Service ever closer to what experts say is a "critical 800-level" making it increasingly difficult to "keep the ship/s afloat" especially as recruitment isn't keeping pace with departures.

Despite the best efforts of a cohort of Naval Service personnel – who have embarked on around-the-country recruitment campaigns in shopping centres, second-level schools etc – the latest recruit class of enlisted personnel had just six in training.

The Naval Service had 1,037 personnel in 1992 and peaked at 1,090 in 2015. However, since then numbers have steadily depleted.

The growing crisis has been highlighted again by PDForra, the association which represents 6,500 enlisted personnel across the Defence Forces.

PDForra president, Mark Keane, said the current staffing levels are the lowest that they have been since 1980 when the Naval Service had fewer vessels and less commitments.

“It’ a sad indictment of the mismanagement of the service over the past 42 years. Other areas of the public service have grown in the interim while the navy has contracted and contracted,” he said.

Mr Keane said while Naval Service management are doing what they can to stem the outflow, the process of payments for personnel who go to sea are complicated and has had, in his association’s estimation, a negative impact on the encouragement of personnel to remain in service.

The failure of engagement on the issue of payments, despite repeated attempts by our association, has undoubtedly contributed to the current crisis. 

“When we have spoken out in the past we have been accused of scaremongering and unnecessarily hyping of the situation. But unfortunately what we have predicted has come to pass,” he said.

Mr Keane pointed out that the recently published Commission on the future of the Defence Forces specifically identified the complicated nature of payments to sea-going personnel as a matter that requires urgent reform.

“Currently, personnel are paid patrol duty allowance, given a tax credit if they undertake a certain amount of days at sea and are eligible for a Sea Service Commitment Scheme. 

“But that scheme only applies to personnel who have completed three years within the Naval Service and have a certain amount of days at sea over a two-year period,” he said.

“The convoluted nature of all the foregoing payments gives no security of income to personnel who could be forced to return certain elements if they do not complete the necessary time at sea. 

We need a single payment which appropriately reflects the onerous nature of sea going duties.

“The fact that we are so far understrength is a further sign, if one were necessary, of the requirement to start thinking outside of the box for solutions and for meaningful engagement with the representative associations in order to find solutions to the current crisis."