Fire, staffing leave just five out of navy's nine ships operational

The fire onboard LE Niamh occurred while it was undergoing routine maintenance. Picture: Eric Roe 

A recent fire on board the LÉ Niamh, coupled with a general manpower crisis in the Naval Service, means only five of the navy's nine ships can currently go out on patrol.

The Naval Service is unable to put the fire-damaged LÉ Niamh back to sea for a number of weeks, while a lack of specialist crew members recently delayed another vessel from going on patrol.

Last weekend, a fire broke out on LÉ Niamh while she was undergoing routine maintenance at Cork Dockyard, Rushbrooke.

The fire damaged the engine room's storeroom, and sources have indicated it will take a number of weeks to repair the damage.

At present, there is no plan to transfer the crew of LÉ Niamh to another ship

The Defence Forces press office said a preliminary investigation report has been submitted by Flag Officer Commanding Naval Service, Commodore Michael Malone, to Defence Forces headquarters.

“A more extensive external assessment of the damage is ongoing. A court of inquiry has been convened and a serious accident investigation team [SAIT] investigation will also be initiated. At present, there is no plan to transfer the crew of LÉ Niamh to another ship,” a spokeswoman said.

The ship is scheduled to undergo a major life-extension upgrade, but it is not clear when this might happen. At present, LÉ Roisin is undergoing a similar refit, which has been delayed by Covid-19 restrictions, and it is not expected to be seaworthy until next January at the earliest.

In the meantime, LÉ Eithne and LÉ Orla are tied up in Haulbowline because they haven't sufficient crews to man them.

Commodore Malone made the decision to put them into operational pause in June 2019 because he was concerned manpower shortages were leading to fatigue and health and safety issues.

Military sources have indicated that transferring the crew of LÉ Niamh to either of these ships would be extremely unfair as they have completed their seagoing missions for this year and would have planned to be undertaking onshore duties, and thus be back with their families.

Last month. the Irish Examiner reported that LÉ Niamh was unable to put to sea for a number of days because a communications specialist was unable to join the crew due to illness. The ship was tied up until a replacement was finally found.

At least three other similar incidents occurred with other Naval Service vessels in the preceding months.

It has now emerged that LÉ Ciara lost some sea patrol days recently because the vessel was also short of a specialist crew member.

While the Naval Service is short of manpower across the board, it is critically short of communications specialists, medics, marine engineers, engine-room fitters, and electronics and electrical technicians.

The Irish Examiner has learned that a number of specialists are also lining up to leave the service, including several highly-trained engine room artificers (ERAs). They have an in-depth knowledge of a ship's main engines and auxiliary engineering equipment.

This would leave the Naval Service potentially facing even greater problems getting ships to sea.

Some of those who have signalled they are leaving told the Irish Examiner that while they loved the job, they were sick of the poor rates of remuneration and had sourced better pay and conditions in the private sector.

They also signalled their frustration that promises made on July 16 by Simon Coveney, the defence minister, to introduce emergency measures to boost their allowances had so far failed to materialise.

In July, Mr Coveney said he would bring an emergency suite of measures to Cabinet by the end of that month to try to stem the manpower crisis.