Jim O'Keeffe
Question:95 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Defence his views on whether the Naval Service is adequately equipped, financed and manned to fulfil its functions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6801/03]
Written Answers - Naval Service.
The Naval Service is the State's principal sea-going agency and is tasked with a variety of defence and other roles. The main day-to-day role of the Naval Service is to provide fishery protection in accordance with the State's obligations as a member of the European Union. However, as the need arises, the Naval Service vessels may be deployed to other duties such as aid to the civil power, search and rescue, drug interdiction operations and assistance with pollution control.
The Naval Service is equipped with a total of eight vessels comprising one helicopter-carrying vessel, five offshore patrol vessels and two coastal patrol vessels. I am very satisfied that the existing complement of vessels enables the Naval Service to carry out its roles in a very effective manner and there is no requirement at present for further resources.
The defence White Paper set out a strength of 1,144 for the Naval Service in accordance with the recommendations of the Pricewaterhouse Coopers consultancy study. The strength of the Naval Service on 28 February 2003 was 1,035 comprising 133 officers, 433 NCO ranks, 448 enlisted seamen and 21 cadets.
The Naval Service will continue to benefit from the Government's policy of ongoing annual recruitment programmes to the Permanent Defence Force. These programmes comprise general service recruitment, the trainee technician/apprentice schemes and the annual cadetship competition. Specialist "direct entry" competitions are also held as and when required to recruit particular specialist categories of personnel to the Naval Service in various ranks, such as marine engineer officers, watchkeeping officers and electrical artificers.