Examiner.ie - Government must stop being 'penny-wise pound foolish' and invest in navy - 12 Mar 23



There is a real cost to the country of not having a properly resourced naval service

 

Government must stop being 'penny-wise pound foolish' and invest in navy 

 

The LÉ James Joyce tied up at the deep-water berth in Cobh, Co Cork. Picture: David Creedon

 

 

 


How do you fix a naval service seriously holed below the water line by a constant leakage of personnel?

It’s something Minister for Defence Micheál Martin is going to need more than temporary 'sticking plaster’' to remedy,  otherwise the navy is sunk.

Firstly, a military life at sea comes with a personal price. Crews are away from their families for weeks and it’s no pleasure cruise in the Atlantic during stormy weather.

It's hard being separated from family. Partners have to take on more responsibility for home/school duties, which may entail them giving up a full-time/part-time job, either temporarily or permanently, or spending extra money on child-minding.

The 'military family' unit is under increasing pressure from a lack of a proper work/life balance.

Such stress could be eased if the working time directive (WTD) is adopted by the Defence Forces. However, there are so few personnel that it could cause huge disruption and curtail a number of duties the country’s military is obliged to undertake.

The Government has accepted, in principle, the implementation of the WTD, but it is believed to want 13 clauses to limit its scope within the Defence Forces.

Such a move would be vehemently opposed by the associations that represent Defence Forces personnel.

Recruitment issues

How can the WTD be implemented in the naval service when it is already on its knees personnel-wise? The Government would nearly have to announce compulsory conscription to bolster its ever-decreasing numbers.

The latest recruits who have just finished training barely number double figures. It's a far cry from 10, 20 and 30 years ago, when recruit classes had 30 or 40-plus people.

With recruit figures so low, it seems an impossible task to steady the ship unless the Department of Defence can come up with some innovative thinking, and quickly.

For the fewer who remain there is more pressure to do all the work. That’s leading to more stress, more burnout, and more people quitting. It is a vicious cycle.

For more than a decade, PDForra has been forecasting a personnel crisis. But little has been done to respond to the warnings.

At last November’s annual PDForra conference, then minister for defence, Simon Coveney, acknowledged that the issue needed to be addressed and admitted the situation was likely to get worse before it got better.

It’s about to get a lot worse, unless there’s emergency intervention.

PDforra president Mark Keane recently highlighted in this newspaper that the naval service will face "a perfect storm" this year.

The navy’s personnel numbers are about to dip, if they haven’t already, to an 'effective' force of little more than 700. It should be 1,094 minimum.

But it could well lose another 221-strong batch of people who're entitled to pensions but are still below the mandatory retirement age.

Mr Keane said 142 personnel will be eligible to collect pensions for 21 years’ service and 79 for 31 years’ service. Five more will reach the 31-year pension mark next year.

All of these people are highly-experienced, highly-trained, and fit enough to continue in the job.

But faced with a booming private sector that offers them better pay and conditions and improved work/life balance, will they stay?

PDForra’s fear is they won’t, especially as many companies are actively headhunting their skills and reliability.

Mr Keane, a petty officer based at the navy’s headquarters, knows better than most what’s happening and says there are ways to rectify the crisis.

'Bounty payment'

In its submission to the Commission on the Defence Forces, PDForra called for a ‘bounty payment’ to keep experienced people.

"Coupled with this should be the introduction of long-service increments for those who've exhausted their current increments," Mr Keane said. 

"While we'll never make seagoing life family-friendly, we can at least put in place the infrastructure on the base to make life more attractive for those people living in.”"

He said remuneration increases should be made for experienced technical personnel.

"We believe we need to revisit the current tRch grades as this was something that's not included in the recent Tech 2 to 6 review, especially for those currently in receipt off Tech 6,” he said.

PDForra has made inroads in addressing some issues. One such example is the recent agreed reports under 'Sectoral Bargaining', which saw a cohort of 60 members of the naval service promised some small, targeted increases in their pay.

Mr Keane said this needs to be implemented without delay if it’s to have any meaningful impact on retaining personnel.

"We will need to retain the 221 in service by giving them security of tenure, allowing them to stay in a job and a career they love beyond 50, as currently they and their families face a very uncertain future. They've served the State and the naval service with great distinction and loyalty over many years. It's now time to recognize this steadfast service as loyalty is a two-way street,” he added.

The Sea Service Commitment Scheme was launched to provide extra money to those who signed up for a certain number of days on patrols. Initially you had to have three years’ experience to get it. It's been reduced to one year after PDForra pointed out this was creating a two-tier situation where people doing the same job were getting differing rates.

However, Mr Keane added that a certain amount of days have to be done on patrol duty to get this bonus and there are issues with this.

 

 

“People will fail to meet the criteria for a variety of reasons, such as bereavement, birth of a child etc, along with the ship being unable to sail due to inclement weather or mechanical failure, which are outside the control of our members,” he said.

The mothballing of more ships also reduces the opportunity to complete the required sea days to qualify for the payment.

The Government has to ask itself how the country is awash with drugs. They don’t fall out of the sky, they come here via the sea. The damage done to society is costing not millions, but probably billions. Then there’s the incalculable cost of illegal fishing.

If only for the two above reasons, the phrase "penny-wise pound foolish" comes to mind when accessing the real cost to the country of not having a properly resourced navy doing as much patrolling as possible.