Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government, including the Minister of State, has acknowledged for quite some time that the Naval Service is short-staffed. It has a complement of 1,094 personnel but it currently has just 934 personnel. The numbers often do not tell the full story as it is particularly short-staffed when it comes to certain specialists and technical staff. There has been no denial at all from the Government in that respect and instead we have taken action. Pay is being restored through the public sector pay agreement and pay for all staff in the public service earning €70,000 or less will be fully restored by the end of next year. In addition, we signed off on a €10 million package for the Defence Forces last week that will provide additional allowances and other improvements. The process will not stop there, as there will be a review of technician pay, which is particularly relevant because people with particular technical skills, including engineers, artificers and others are especially sought after in the private sector now and they can command very good salaries. We need to review that pay as well. Those are the kinds of actions very much under way by the Government.

I am happy to clear up any confusion about the fleet. The Naval Service currently has nine vessels. There used to be eight but, because we have invested in the fleet and have a more modern fleet than ever before, there are five new vessels while only four have been decommissioned. We have more vessels than ever before but we have fewer sailors and that has obviously created a problem.

Of the nine vessels, LÉ Róisín is going through a mid-life refit and will not be available for service until the end of the year. LÉ Eithne and LÉ Orla are going through planned maintenance, as the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, said and that was confirmed by the press office of the Defence Forces last night. What is different is that their crews are now being redeployed to the other vessels to ensure they are fully crewed and staffed. That is important from a retention point of view because we want to retain our able seamen and Naval Service staff, rather than having them spread too thinly and short-staffed on a large number of ships. It is better to have a small number of ships fully staffed and I support the decision of the flag officer in that regard.

Those vessels will be out of service until the end of September and mid-October but, with current staffing levels, it is unlikely they can be brought back into service. That means that three ships will be held in operational reserve or in maintenance, with the remaining six vessels fully operational. It means some operations will be restricted. For example, the Naval Service will not be able to return to the Mediterranean because we must instead focus on our own seas, fishery protection and drug interdiction.

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