Navy could be facing exodus of personnel
A former senior chief petty officer in the Naval Service has said he never thought he would see the day when two ships had to be tied-up indefinitely because of manpower shortages.
Noel ‘Sam’ Fealy, who retired recently after 43-years in the service, has warned that if the Public Service Pay Commission (PSPC) recommendations for increases in allowances for Defence Forces personnel are as low as expected it will trigger the biggest ever exodus of navy personnel in the history of the State.
“They (senior naval management) will turn up one day and find they’ve absolutely no staff,” Mr Fealy said.
He said he was “saddened” to see the service in such a state and was even more saddened to say that he wouldn’t recommend joining up to any young person.
Mr Fealy made his comments after the Irish Examiner revealed that Naval Service had been forced to tie up its flagship, LÉ Eithne, and offshore patrol boat LÉ Orla because it doesn’t have the manpower to operate them.
“The Defence Forces command are constantly asking the Department officials for increased pay and improvements to working conditions, but they’re being swatted away. The civil servants are paying millions for ships, but not worrying about who is going to crew them.”
Mr Fealy said he is also concerned about the health and safety implications of putting young and inexperienced personnel into acting up roles to fill manpower gaps.
“I have worked in the navy through three recessions and never seen anything like this. There’s no incentive to stay. It’s not a career anymore. They (the department) have burned all the good people,” he said.
Senator Greard Craughwell, a former member of the Defence Forces, who serves on the Oireachtas Committee for Equality, Justice and Defence, said all expenditure on capital projects for the Defence Forces should be suspended immediately and the money diverted into paying personnel properly.
Why have we spent millions of euro buying new ships when we’re not investing in personnel to man them
The Department of Defence wants to purchase a Multi-Role Vessel (MRV) for the navy, which could cost up to €200m. Mr Craughwell said this should be postponed, describing it as “madness” when the government was failing to stem the exodus of highly trained people.
“Retention is the issue and paying people properly will help this. As far as I’m concerned recruitment is secondary,” he said.
Fianna Fáil spokesman on Defence Jack Chambers said tying up of Naval Service vessels represented a “watershed” for the Defence Forces and blamed Minister with responsibility for Defence Paul Kehoe, and his senior civil servants for running the military “into the floor”.
Mr Chamber pointed out that if there is a hard Brexit Naval Services’ duties will only increase. He claimed there was no planning to deal with that possibility and the crisis in manpower is also hitting the Air Corps.
