Displaying items by tag: Staff Shortage

16th February 2020

Staff Shortage May See Naval Service Ship Tied Up While Ireland ‘Awash with Drugs’

LÉ Ciara failed to leave port on 30 December but eventually did so on 1 January due to illness/injury of crew members. AFLOAT adds the Coastal Patrol Vessel (CPV) became the first Naval Service vessel to berth at the new marina (as above) in Bantry, Co. Cork during a call last year.

There are fears that the Naval Service due to under-resources won’t be able to combat maritime drug shipments while at the same time adequately patrolling EU fishery waters post-Brexit.

As the Irish Examiner reports, concerns have also been raised that it may have to tie up yet another ship, due to debilitating manpower shortages.

RACO, the organisation that represents the country’s military officers, said that despite tying up LÉ Eithne and LÉ Orla last June, the manpower crisis is deepening by the day and “there are concerns that the tying-up of a further ship could be imminent”.

The RACO general secretary, Commandant Conor King, said it is worrying that even the remaining ships “are routinely operating on the edge of the minimum workable crewing numbers”.

He pointed out that LÉ Ciara was on sailing order on December 30, but failed to leave port (as previously reported) until January 1 due to illness/injury of crew members.

About World Ocean Day

World Ocean Day is celebrated annually on June 8th to highlight the important role the ocean has for our life and the planet. The focus each year is on the 30x30 campaign: to create a healthy ocean with abundant wildlife and to stabilise the climate, it is critical that 30% of our planet’s lands, waters, and oceans are protected by 2030.

One of the issues affecting our ocean is marine litter which has become a global problem for both humans and marine life. However, communities around Ireland have demonstrated their desire to be part of the solution by taking part in several beach cleaning and clean-up calls to action.

Statistics show that the number one cause of marine litter is litter dropped in towns and cities.

In 2021, the initiative changed its name from “World Oceans Day” to “World Ocean Day”. By dropping the “s”, its organisers wanted to highlight the fact that we are all connected by a large ocean. This shared ocean supports all life on the planet, by producing most of the oxygen we breathe and regulating climate. No matter where we live, we all depend on the ocean to survive.

This means that each piece of marine litter removed from a beach, river, lake, park or street in Ireland, will have a positive impact on a global scale.