Time to admit defeat, scrap the navy?

More Med trips like Yeats did recently.

Proper time off patrols.

Less duties.

Make seagoing attractive.

Signing on bonus for those who are signing on instead of letting them go on a pension.

The WBY arrived from 6 weeks in the Mediterranean, 5 weeks ago.

"Make seagoing attractive"

@Firbolg Problem is, Ireland cannot trust the UK. Ten years ago, possibly, but not now. After May, Johnson and Truss, the UK is, alas and I really mean alas, I am an Anglophile, going down the tubes. Its democracy is in tatters, its population divided, its reputation for stability shot to bits and Neoliberalism has hollowed out its institutions even more than Ireland. It has trouble with recruitment and retention too, all across its services. Its navy is barely able to cover its own roles (albiet wider than IRelands). Same with people who are talking about relying on the UK for Air defence. The UK is down to only about 100 combat aircraft. for everything. It is not the RAF of old. Come a war it has no spare aircraft to cover Northern Ireland, let alone the Republic. We need to get our act together, because the UK is not in a position to help us.

Ukranian war has shown the Navy is still very prevalent in operations.

over 100 different Navy vessels of all classes have seen action for the Ukraine….

a few drones won’t replace a Navy.

If the world changed significantly after an event and another country felt like Ireland was a good place to rock up and take over by way of invading…. There should be ‘some’ sort of deterrent.. we are an island, we need a navy.

Aside from what some have already pointed out, that you are approaching this from a position of complete ignorance, and have not read the thread, I will offer some explanation. Although there are 750ish current naval personnel not all sailors do the same job. There are a few key technical jobs which are so key that no ship can safely sail without them. These are highly skilled jobs, for which the private sector are prepared to pay very high wages for. They have poached naval service staff! The government would like to raise pay, but cannot easily, because it would cause a cascade of pay disputes across the public sector. It is trying to find workarounds. So there might be forty of the necessary forty five crew available for a ship, but if the missing five are certain jobs, the ship cannot sail.

I wasn’t directing my comments at you Firbolg. That said…Problem with getting contractors is they object to their workers getting shot at. When you join the armed forces you potentially risk your life, most employers will baulk at the risk assessment or alternatively pull their workers when things got up. Or alternatively the contractor will not do what they are told and then you are faced with shooting down their plane, big hastle.

I think that the government has to find a way of saying , and the backbone to say it, that people who sign up for the military are signing away more than other public servants it terms of commitment and possibly more (yes that is part of the job), and that that must be properly remunerated. On a wider level neo-liberalism has been shown to cost more than it saves and must be, mostly, ditched, from housing, energy security, transport, defence etc. Privatisation hasn’t worked that well that often and probably won’t work in the future.

On the allowance I agree, and cannot understand the delay.

regarding privatisation, been there, done it bought the t! It provides a short term boost but soon the private companies learn to game the system and it becomes increasingly inefficient. Those things that can easily be monitised, where there is a real product with real financial value should generally be in private hands, but those things where the value is essential not monitory should not be privatised. The military is a case in point. The need for a military is not one that can be reduced for mere money. Money can be made supplying it, but defending the state is beyond the pecuniary. Have a look across the water at their crumbling state and tell me that untrammelled privatisation is a good thing.

Nothing wrong with civil disagreement! But something needs to be done, we agree on that!