Officers are sleeping in barracks in rooms where there are rat and mice droppings and when they can't avail of limited living-in accommodation they're forced to travel long distances to postings or pay exorbitant rents.

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.

The Government has been accused of running down the Defence Forces to such an extent that if there was a major security crisis, the country has been left “woefully unprepared, dramatically undefended, and shamefully exposed.”

Retired Lieut Col Dan Harvey said the Defence Forces is "broken" and "in crisis" with "morale at an all-time low," because they are "overlooked and undervalued, overworked, underpaid, over-stretched and undermanned."

The four cases claiming breach of the Working Time Directive (WTD) within the Defence Forces have been adjourned after the Department of Defence offered to enter into mediation talks with the organisation taking them.

A charity is to set up a number of support centres to help former soldiers, sailors and aircrews.

Minister of state Paul Keogh has announced measures which he hopes will stem an exodus of personnel from the Defence Forces.

The US Navy has fired two senior commanders in the Pacific region in connection with two ship collisions which resulted in the deaths of 17 sailors.

US military divers have recovered the bodies of all 10 sailors killed in a collision between an American destroyer and an oil tanker near Singapore.

A second victim of the collision between an American warship and an oil tanker near Singapore has been identified by the US Navy.

The US Navy has called off the search at sea for sailors missing after a collision between a destroyer and an oil tanker, and confirmed the identity of one body.

The commander of the US Navy's 7th Fleet is to be removed after a series of warship accidents in the Pacific, two of them fatal, officials have confirmed.

A search and rescue mission to find seven US sailors missing after an American destroyer collided with a merchant ship in waters off Japan has ended after bodies were found.

A whistleblower has criticised the Government’s handling of allegations of health and safety management in the Air Corps, claiming that staff exposure to toxic chemicals has caused the deaths and chronic illnesses suffered by members and their families.

One in 10 officers has resigned from the Defence Forces in the past two years after becoming disillusioned with the job.

Your spoiler free guide to tonight's TV.

A US military chief ordered his subordinates to destroy any photographs of Osama bin Laden’s body or turn them over to the CIA, 11 days after the the al Qaida founder was killed in 2011, a newly-released email shows.

Failed US system will not inspire ties with Russia and China, says Yousaf Butt

The top US Navy official in the Gulf said he takes Iran’s military capabilities seriously but insists his forces are prepared to confront any Iranian aggression in the region.

We Are Besieged

Rebel forces were bearing down on Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi’s home town and a key government stronghold, today, setting the stage for a bloody and possibly decisive battle.

France declared Libya’s air space “under control” today after Nato agreed to take command of the no-fly zone.

French fighter jets have shot down a Libyan plane, a US official said today.

A Guantanamo jury has recommended a 14-year sentence for an al Qaida cook, though he could be released much sooner under a plea bargain that will limit the time he spends in prison.

The death of Poland’s president and many elite figures in Saturday’s plane crash in Russia rekindled memories of the wartime Katyn massacre.

STUNNED rescuers wrenched a survivor from the rubble after 12 days entombed in Haiti’s quake-ravaged capital, where desperate crowds clamoured yesterday for more and quicker relief.

Philippine authorities are investigating the crew of two vessels that allegedly passed by a sinking ferry without offering help, while some passengers reportedly snapped pictures, the coast guard said today.

Somali pirates have hijacked another vessel in the Horn of Africa, a freighter seized overnight in the Gulf of Aden, maritime security contractors said today.

US president Barack Obama vowed to “halt the rise of piracy” as shipmates of the rescued American freighter captain called for tough action against Somali bandits.

Pirate hostages were feared at risk of a violent backlash from their captors today in the wake of the successful freeing of an American merchant captain.

The US Justice Department was considering whether to prosecute a Somali pirate in Washington, New York or Kenya, following the rescue of a US hostage and the arrest of his only surviving captor.

Snipers on a US Navy ship cut down three Somali pirates in a lifeboat and rescued an American sea captain in a surprise nighttime assault in choppy seas, ending a five-day standoff between a team of rogue gunmen and the world’s most powerful military.

Iran test-fired nine long and medium-range missiles today during war games that officials said were in response to US and Israeli threats, state television reported.

There are fears that the death toll from Typhoon Fengshen would leap dramatically today after reports that more than 700 people are missing after a ferry capsized.

Typhoon Fengshen lashed the Philippines for a second day today, leaving at least 80 people dead as it submerged entire communities and capsized a passenger ferry carrying more than 740 passengers and crew.

Iran today claimed a video of its gunboats harassing American warships in the Persian Gulf was made up.

The reported release comes hours after Iranian state television broadcast a few seconds of footage it claimed was of the operation that seized 15 British soldiers in Iranian territorial waters last week.

AREAS of New Orleans newly flooded by Hurricane Rita could be pumped dry within a week after levee damage is repaired, far sooner than initially predicted.

The Mayor of New Orleans has suspended the reopening of large portions of the city and ordered nearly everyone out because of the risk of a new round of flooding from another tropical storm.

NEW ORLEANS' mayor has the authority to let residents return to his hurricane-damaged city, but the Coast Guard official in charge of the federal disaster response said yesterday that all the information from health and environmental experts recommends against it.