Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)

I agree with all that has been said by Deputy Smith. I will also flag the issue of cadets. We spoke about cadets and subsequently officers in the Defence Forces as a whole a short time ago, where serious challenges exist. In the 63rd naval cadet class, six cadets commenced training but only two were commissioned. The remaining four withdrew before commissioning, citing the extended service commitment associated with naval officer training as the primary reason for their departure. The length of these undertakings needs to be reviewed as well as the terms and conditions. We need a mixture in the Naval Service. We need to ensure there is an adequate number of personnel as a whole. We need to ensure that there are enough cadets, from an officer's point of view. We also need to ensure that the specialist staff are there to ensure that ships going to sea are safe. A ship and the personnel required in it is a machine in several respects and each part is necessary. We do not have enough of hardly any of the parts at this point in time, particularly specialist staff.

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