Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Naval Service is in meltdown. For the first time in the history of the State, it is unable to fulfil its core function of sea fisheries protection. The unprecedented situation where it was not able to put ships to sea occurred not only last week but also over the summer. The issues are now in the public domain because the men and women of the Defence Forces simply will not put up with it any longer. Rather than an attempt being made to deal honestly with chronic understaffing, exhausted and overworked crews are being bullied into going to sea in unsafe conditions in order to give the illusion that we have a functioning navy. Ships which routinely were crewed by 44 personnel are putting to sea with a crew of 34.

Yesterday there was the spectacle of threatening emails being sent directing crews that notice for short-term relief no longer applied and that they had to be ready to put to sea whenever necessary. That email was issued and then rescinded. To add insult to injury, the Chief of Staff then stated there was no crisis and that the weekly haemorrhaging of expensive, experienced trained staff was all about pay. Pay has something to do with it, as does the chronic mismanagement of the Defence Forces in recent years and the move towards vanity prestige projects in an effort to cosy up to the EU military elite. A fully trained and resourced crew is taking part in Operation Sophia which is a military exercise, not a search and rescue mission.

A costly ninth vessel is being delivered, but we do not have sufficient numbers to crew the eight ships that we have. The families of Defence Forces members are living on the breadline. To cover for the shortage of crew members, on a weekly basis personnel are being bullied into finding a way around the minimum crew number of 37 and press-ganged into returning to sea on another ship after a four-week tour of duty. The Government talks about the Defence Forces being family friendly. How, in God's name, could any woman or man put up with these conditions? Even when a ship has a crew of 37, often, many of them are unskilled staff, meaning that there are not enough communications operators to maintain watch in the radio cabin and not enough engine room monitors, which means that the ship just sits there to give the pretence we have a navy. It is an absolute disgrace.

In the light of the response of the hierarchy of the Defence Forces to the crisis, can the Tánaiste express confidence in the Chief of Staff? Is it now time to suspend our involvement in Operation Sophia and bring home our crews and allow them to do the job the Naval Service was set up to do, namely, to protect our sea fisheries and coastal waters?

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