About €1.2 million is to be spent on external contractors to keep Naval Service ships at sea due to the drastic shortage of personnel, reports The Irish Times.

In recent years, electrical artificers, who are responsible for maintaining and repairing patrol ships’ electrical systems, have been departing the navy in large numbers due to high demand in the private sector as Afloat previously reported.

An entire class of trainees also recently left for the private sector in one go.

Currently the Naval Service is in the process of seeking to replace these workers with contractors from private companies. These will work alongside sailors in the electrical electronic section under the direction of its commanding officer. The intent is to augment the section “and not replace” it, the Naval Service said in procurement documents.

The private contractors will carry out planned and unplanned maintenance but will not be expected to go to sea.

“Due to a short-term lack in skilled electrical artificers (electronic technicians/electricians) the Naval Service require a contracted service assistance to provide technical support to the existing staff within the EES,” it said.

More from the newspaper here.

As The Irish Times reports an entire class of Naval Service apprentices is leaving at the same time after a private company bought out their contracts, a sign of the worsening retention crisis in the Defence Forces.

The five recruits were undergoing training as ships’ electricians, known in the Naval Service as electrical artificers. They recently completed their block release, the military version of work placement, with the multinational medical supply company Stryker in Cork.

It is understood Stryker was impressed with the apprentices’ work. It offered all of them permanent positions in the company and to buy out their military contracts. Two of the recruits have taken up the offer and the other three are in the process of leaving.

The cost of buying out the recruits’ contracts is estimated to be up to €30,000. Military sources said this figure pales in comparison to what it cost the Naval Service to train the recruits up to this point.

Just under 270 personnel have left the Defence Forces so far this year, almost three times the figure for the same period in 2021.

More from the newspaper here.