Minister of State for Defence Paul Kehoe was accused of being in “complete and continuous denial” over the inability of Naval vessels to set sail because of a shortage of staff. But the Minister insisted that “the Naval Service is meeting its security and defence tasks”. He went on: “I assure the general public that the Naval Service is capable. Claiming that the Defence Forces and Department of Defence were in “complete crisis”, Mr Chambers accused Mr Kehoe of “completely failing the people”. Mr Kehoe said he had admitted that “we have human resources challenges in the Naval Service”, but they were engaged in a process with the Public Service Pay Commission.

Source: The Irish Times October 03, 2018 19:15 UTC