Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has shown a real interest in the Naval Service and its capacity, and for good reason. The Naval Service is significantly under strength at the moment. As a result of that, two ships that should be at sea do not have the capacity to go to sea because we do not have the crews to crew them. We are trying to address that. We worked for more than three months with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to put in place a new scheme for the Naval Service, which was essentially a going to sea incentive scheme to get people to commit to going to sea for two of the next four years. I think that scheme will be successful. We are finalising the terms of its implementation with representative bodies at the moment. It effectively gives people who commit to the scheme €10,000, or €5,000 per year that they commit to go to sea, on top of their patrol duty allowance and the extended tax credit for going to sea. That latter proposal came from the Department of Finance and the credit will be increased for next year on the back of what was available this year. We are trying to ensure the recruitment and retention issues in the naval service are addressed in a targeted way.

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