There is a prophetic quality about the comments made to this newspaper earlier this week by Michael Martin, founder of the Defence Forces representative association, PDFORRA. Mr Martin, who is a former warrant officer, retired from the Naval Service earlier this year. He is one of a generation which has quit the force in sheer frustration. The service, he says, is suffering from lack of direction and low morale.
Coming just a fortnight after publication by Government of a review which promises a radical overhaul of both the Naval Service and Air Corps, his views sound unduly pessimistic. After all, the Price Waterhouse recommendations are very positive, for the most part. They include a £235 million re-equipment plan for both defence wings at a time of increasing pressure to carry out drug interdiction, search and rescue and fisheries protection duties; increased staff for the Naval Service, and a cut in Air Corps personnel. The consultants seek greater efficiency from both defence wings, but they also confirm the need for their multi-tasking roles.
The Government has accepted these recommendations in principle, and has stated that it supports the appropriate mix of multi-tasking which both the Naval Service and Air Corps currently carry out. Indeed, the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, is on record in opposition as calling for expansion of both services. Unfortunately, a golden opportunity in Government to deliver on his party's stated commitment to the marine has fallen foul of two obstacles. Firstly, action on many of the recommendations may be deferred until after publication of the White Paper on Defence. That could take up to two years, by which time many more experienced Navy and Air Corps staff may have left. The Department of Defence has disputed claims by the representative organisations that this represents a fudge, and says that certain proposals will be acted upon now. In that case - and this is the second obstacle - why has the promised independent chairperson for the implementation committee been dropped ?
The reality is that implementation of the Price Waterhouse review will require a steady, independent, hand, given the many agendas of those involved in the consultation. The Army is keen to ensure that additional resources for the Naval Service and Air Corps are not granted at its expense. The Department of Defence appears to have no appreciation of the difficulties of policing a sea area four times the size of Ireland. Michael Martin has compared the Navy's existing resources to "two Garda patrol cars" to cover the 26 counties.
Next week, tall ships will sail into Dublin Port. Rescue units in both the Naval Service and Air Corps, and many volunteers, will be on call to deal with major and minor accidents at sea. Overworked and badly paid, they will have to listen to many tributes being paid by international visitors to the hosts - representatives of this "great maritime nation". If the official commitment to those services charged with protection of this marine resource is anything to judge by, it is an image that is built on shifting sand.