Irish Examiner View: Our naval crisis likely to worsen

Only 15 people completed their naval training last year, which is not nearly enough to fill the gap left by the departure of hundreds of personnel.

Irish Naval Service vessels berthed at Kennedy Quay Cork City. The LÉ Samuel Beckett is in foreground. Picture: Larry Cummins

The crisis facing Ireland’s naval service has been detailed extensively here in recent months, and the latest development marks another disappointing milestone in that saga.

As revealed by Sean O’Riordan, the service has been forced to place two more of its ships on ‘operational reserve’ due to its staffing crisis. In real terms this means the navy has been left with just two vessels, the LÉ Samuel Beckett and the LÉ William Butler Yeats, to patrol our exclusive economic zone, which amounts to 437,500 sq m in area.