Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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One of the key elements I imagine is likely to come out of this in the context of our naval capacity and the Commission on the Defence Forces is the development of a 12-ship fleet by 2040. A couple of things occurred to me, and I want to get Dr. Stanley's views on skills shortages that might constrain our ability to come to terms with the threats we face. Generally speaking, across the board there will be a requirement in the Naval Service for more mariners. That is happening at a time when, potentially, the development of floating offshore wind capacity will also require more mariners. In both the private and public sectors, therefore, there is potentially going to be a demand for more people in that sphere where there are already not enough people with the skills and abilities. I do not know whether it is through the national maritime college, but where or how do we expand the base of mariners to recruit from?

To be able to put ships to sea, at times the Naval Service has been constrained by the fact there are not enough trained artificers in the Naval Service. I have raised with the Minister the issue of service commitment schemes to try to retain and recruit more people with those skills. They are two very significant gaps. We can all have the objective, and I expect we all do have the objective, to expand the Naval Service to be able to address some of the potential threats that exist, but those skill shortages could hold us back even if the budget is available.