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

I live a few miles from the naval base and know it well. I go walking and running there fairly regularly. Nobody is more focused than I am on getting our Naval Service back up to the strength it should be at. We are about 275 people below where we should be, which is impacting on our ability to crew vessels. We have just decommissioned three ships, not because we could not crew them despite some of the commentary but because they are old and needed to be moved on. At the start of next year, we will bring in two ships from New Zealand. They require smaller crews and are much more modern vessels. Let us not deny that the Naval Service has a big challenge with recruitment and retention to get to where want to be so that we can ensure that the Naval Service can do what we are asking of it, not only in fisheries patrols, drug interdiction and the other sovereignty and security issues, but also some of the new infrastructure it will need to protect when it is built. I assure the Deputy that there is an absolute focus on getting the Naval Service back to where it needs to be.

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