The HSE has started using the Pairc Ui Chaoimh stadium in Cork as a Covid-19 testing centre with up to 1,000 people to be processed each day.

The Irish Examiner understands the Naval Service is preparing to bring back into service its flagship, LÉ Eithne, to carry out Covid-19 virus testing in Cork city.

Soldiers who have to come into barracks to provide support services get no extra allowance.

The security of the State is at grave risk due to an influx of foreign intelligence agents, an inability to effectively protect undersea fibreoptic cables transmitting millions of financial transactions daily, and a lack of resources to counter terrorist threats.

The Naval Service is so under-resourced that there are fears it won’t be able to combat maritime drug shipments while at the same time adequately patrolling EU fishery waters post-Brexit.

A leading west Cork fish supplier and former Fine Gael campaign manager has added his voice to criticism of the short timeline for registering for a postal vote in this general election.

Serving sailors and former comrades of a Navy man who died helping to save the crew of a Spanish trawler held a special commemoration to remember him 30 years to the day of the tragedy.

An expert group has made a submission to the government saying it must bolster the Naval Service to protect the country's maritime security.

General Secretary of RACO, Commandant Conor King, said that even some short-term measures promised in the Government's 'High Level Implementation Plan' are "significantly behind schedule"

As a result volunteers at 23 of the service’s 44 stations equipped with rigid inflatable boats and smaller D-Class boats couldn’t launch any rescue operations.

A chronic shortage of trained pilots has forced the Air Corps to reduce the number of hours it will fly the Emergency Aeromedical Service helicopter, based in Athlone.

The wreckage of a boat has been discovered near the coastline in Dunmanus Bay.

PDForra has reacted angrily after some of its Naval Service delegates were refused permission by military management to attend the association's annual delegate conference.

While pay and conditions will dominate PDForra’s annual conference, so too will overburdening stress within the ranks of the Defence Forces caused by manpower shortages.

A French fishing boat has been detained off the south of Cork.

The exodus from the Defence Forces continues unabated with 70 personnel bailing out of the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps last month - 16 of whom were recruits in training.

Concerns have been raised that plans to provide proper accommodation at Haulbowline Naval base won't be enough to bring an end to sailors sleeping on ships on their days off.

Women may only account for just 6.5% of the Naval Service but for the first time in its history, three of its ships - a third of the fleet - are being captained by female Lieutenant Commanders.

All four Naval Service Reserve (NSR) motor launches have been decommissioned due to their age, while the strength of the back-up force has significantly decreased and is desperately short of young people.

A diver rescued by a Naval Service ship after getting into difficulties at the site of the Lusitania wreck was later airlifted to hospital, reportedly suffering from decompression sickness, otherwise known as 'the bends'.

Defence Minister Paul Kehoe has been criticised as being “asleep at the wheel” after admitting he was not “briefed in advance” over the Navy staff shortages “fiasco”, which led to two vessels being docked.

An Irish naval service ship on Mediterranean rescue several years ago was unable to recover a dead migrant from the water for four hours because EU states refused to accept the body, a former mission member has said.

The positive publicity surrounding the Naval Service’s role in saving trafficked migrants from drowning in the Mediterranean Sea was responsible for an increase in people joining the force.

A Defence Forces support group is calling on the Government to give more respect to personnel.

Junior officers in the naval service were regularly ‘acting down’ to fulfill duties normally carried out by ordinary and able seamen due to staff shortages months before two vessels were docked due to staff shortages.

It's somewhat ironic the Naval Service's commander spends most of his days on Haulbowline Island, just a stone's throw from Spike Island where three of his granduncles were interned in 1921 – and a fact he only found out two years ago.

Two decorated former senior Naval Service officers have called on Paul Kehoe, the junior defence minister, to resign.

The joint Oireachtas committee on foreign affairs and defence has been urged to visit Naval Service headquarters to investigate for itself how bad manpower levels are.

A pay review is to be undertaken in the next three months aimed at addressing the exodus of highly trained engineers and technicians in the Defence Forces, especially in the Naval Service.

A former Army private, a rugby international, a martial arts instructor and a one-time IT recruitment consultant are among nine young men who have become the latest additions to the Naval Service officers' ranks.

The two representative associations for the Defence Forces are set to have their national executive meeting within days to consider the fall-out from the Public Service Pay Commission (PSPC) report.

More than 1,400 officers and personnel have left the military in the past year, the vast majority of them voluntarily, according to the association representing defence forces officers.

Reserves in the Defence Forces have to travel to training and exercises at their own expense and get paid, on average, 19% less than their full-time counterparts for doing the same work.

A former senior chief petty officer in the Naval Service has said he never thought he would see the day when two ships had to be tied-up indefinitely because of manpower shortages.

Our report today on the number of sailors leaving the Naval Service paints a grim picture for the future of Ireland’s maritime armed service.

A record number of sailors are bailing out of the Naval Service and fears have been raised that it will be the worst year on record for departures of highly trained personnel.