Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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24. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence his views on the recruitment and retention crisis in the Irish Naval Service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57622/22]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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50. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if he is satisfied with the level of uptake on the current recruitment drive for the Naval Service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58420/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 24 and 50 together.

The Government has previously acknowledged the recruitment and retention difficulties in the Naval Service. In response to these challenges, I approved a comprehensive Naval Service Regeneration Plan in 2021 which is being progressed and monitored by a high-level civil/military team.

The aim of the Plan is to address the issues facing the Naval Service in the context of Human Resources, Operational Capacity, and Infrastructure. A number of the staffing measures in the plan have been implemented and these include:

- The seagoing service commitment scheme, introduced in January 2021, aimed at retaining experienced personnel and incentivising sea-going duties. Officials in my Department are finalising the 2022 scheme having received sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for the Scheme to be extended into 2022. Following a review of the Scheme, the eligibility criteria has been reduced from a minimum of 3 years’ service to a minimum of 1 years’ service.

- Revision of terms and conditions for certain specialists which resulted in the age limit for Naval Service technicians being increased from 27 to 29 years of age. In addition flexibility in respect of the starting pay for Marine Engineering Officers was introduced and is being progressed for certain other Naval Service specialists.

Furthermore, three Naval Service Regeneration priority action Working Groups have been established to make recommendations on:

- A revised Patrol Duty allowance model

- Consideration of future overseas missions/tasks/visits for the Naval Service.

- A concentrated recruitment campaign for general service naval recruits and specialist personnel

The work of these groups is progressing.

Other measures include ensuring that, in addition to ongoing traditional recruitment, the scope of direct entry competitions is kept under consideration. Of the 13 direct entry competitions being utilised in 2022, 8 are in respect of the Naval Service. The campaign to re-enlist and re-commission former members of the Permanent Defence Force has also boosted specialist numbers. As at 31 October 2022, 24 Naval Service personnel were inducted comprised of 21 General Service Recruits, 1 Direct Entry Electrical Engineer and 2 re-enlisted personnel.

In relation to retention, there has been significant progress on pay arising from the Public Service Pay Commission recommendations along with increases from recent pay agreements and the early implementation of some of the recommendations of Commission on the Defence Forces. In addition to the Naval Service commitment scheme, which followed from the reintroduction of a successful service commitment scheme for Flying Officers in the Air Corps., a tax credit for sea going Naval Service personnel is another example of targeted measures I introduced.

My focus is on bringing the strength of the Defence Forces to the numbers required to meet the agreed level of ambition arising from the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces