Displaying items by tag: Damning Report

8th August 2018

Calibre of Defence Forces Recruits ‘Reduced’

Last month, 65 recruits were called to the Naval Service headquarters (above) in Haulbowline, Cork Harbour to undertake medical and fitness tests. Just six turned up for a recruitment class that was supposed to be up to 48-strong.

#NavalService - The Irish Examiner writes of a damning report that highlights the reduced calibre of recruits in the Defence Forces, concluding that some had severe learning difficulties, others were extremely unfit, and one had been arrested numerous times by gardaí.

Some officers within the Defence Forces have queried vetting procedures as the report claims they were unaware of that person’s past until it was pointed out by another recruit.

Garda vetting is not carried out in many cases before recruits are inducted into training. This is because of the need to speed up recruitment to replace the haemmorage of highly trained personnel who are leaving the Defence Forces for better pay and conditions in the private sector.

Garda vetting of recruits can take between three and six months to complete.

For more on the newspaper's story click here.

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Competitions

The most significant events for the Half Ton Class has been the annual Half Ton Cup which was sailed under the IOR rules until 1993. More recently this has been replaced with the Half Ton Classics Cup. The venue of the event moved from continent to continent with over-representation on French or British ports. In later years the event is held biennially. Initially, it was proposed to hold events in Ireland, Britain and France by rotation. However, it was the Belgians who took the ball and ran with it. The Class is now managed from Belgium.