The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, may have to recruit from outside the State to meet a staffing crisis within the Naval Service. So severe is the shortage of deck officers for the service's seven ships that the Department of Defence intends to recruit through direct intake. Advertisements for 10 executive officers with watchkeeping experience are to be placed within the next two to three weeks, a Department spokesman has told The Irish Times.
Ironically, the decision comes at a time when the Defence Minister's Cabinet colleague, the Minister for the Marine, Dr Woods, has moved to set up a national coastguard, which has assumed some original Naval Service functions, including pollution control. Such is the low level of morale within the Naval Service that officers have been leaving just short of retirement to take up more attractive jobs elsewhere.
Overall numbers are below strength, at "around" 1,000, according to the Department of Defence. Although the contract for a new £20 million ship was placed just before Christmas, there are fears that there won't be anyone to crew it.
The Minister for Defence expressed alarm at this trend when in opposition. During his time as Fianna Fail defence and marine spokesman, Mr Smith repeatedly called on the then Minister, Mr Sean Barrett, to publish a consultancy study of the Naval Service and Air Corps which had been commissioned in June, 1996, as part of the overall review of the Defence Forces.
When the study's terms of reference were widened to allow for "long-term strategic decisions", Mr Smith called on Mr Barrett to publish the first draft as an interim report. When Mr Barrett did not respond, Mr Smith accused the government of being involved in a "deliberate stalling exercise" and of "playing around with the security of the State".
The revised study has been completed within the last month, but so far the Minister has not delivered on his election promise to publish its contents. The report is expected to be submitted to the Government soon, following its acceptance by a steering group attached to the Taoiseach's office. It is believed to recommend increasing Naval Service numbers to 1,200, while reducing strength within the Air Corps at technical level.
The report is expected to recommend that the Government endorses a long-term investment programme aimed at replacing the entire Naval Service fleet over 15 years, given that the oldest ship, the LE Deirdre, is nearing the end of its lifespan. However, it is also expected to recommend increased efficiency in fisheries protection within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone - at a time when the Common Fisheries Policy is becoming far more cumbersome and bureaucratic.
The fact that much of the focus is on fisheries protection reflects the diminished role for the Naval Service in other non-military duties. When proposals for a European coastguard base in Ireland were mooted about 10 years ago, principally by the Fine Gael MEP, Mr John Cushnahan, it was envisaged that the Naval Service would be developed on the lines of the US and Canadian models, with drug interdiction being one of its main functions.
Drug interdiction is still a responsibility, but pollution control has been subsumed by the Irish Marine Emergency Service - now to form the new coastguard, with its 600 volunteers attached to 50 IMES units around the coast.
