In recent days there has been considerable controversy surrounding the recent decision of the Naval Service to dock two vessels because of the continuing recruitment and retention crisis in the Defence Forces. As the Taoiseach knows, the officer in command of the Naval Service, Commodore Michael Malone, wrote in a Defence Forces newsletter on 27 June that 540 personnel had left the service in the past five years and that because of an inadequate number of personnel, he had taken the decision to place two ships in an operational reserve capacity.

In response to that information making its way into the public domain last weekend, the Minister of State with responsibility for defence, Deputy Paul Kehoe, dismissed it, as he has consistently dismissed concerns about the recruitment and retention crisis in the Defence Forces when these matters have been raised. On Saturday evening he claimed the two ships were being docked because of what he called "planned maintenance" and crews were being redeployed to other vessels. He directly contradicted the concerns of Commodore Malone. The Taoiseach yesterday accepted that the Naval Service faces significant staffing challenges and said it was "cutting its cloth to measure". He agreed with Commodore Malone and contradicted the Minister of State.

Does the Taoiseach think it appropriate for the Minister of State to withdraw his remarks given that he was wrong and his assertion was inaccurate? I believe that should happen today. The docking of two naval vessels will have consequences and a number of military sources in the press this morning spelt out precisely what will be those challenges. A source indicated that because of Ireland's massive sea area, having nine vessels is like having two Garda cars patrolling the island of Ireland, so with the vessels docked, it is like having one and a half such patrol cars. Another source said that this is like having a "neon sign for drug smugglers" because the deterrent factor is gone, with the end result being more drugs on the streets in Dublin, Portarlington, Ballina and so on.

That is the potential outworking of this issue. Fewer naval patrols in Irish waters because two vessels are docked means there will be fewer drug seizures and less of a deterrent. That cannot continue, so it is time for serious action to tackle what is a serious recruitment and retention crisis facing the Naval Service and the Defence Forces more generally. It is clear the recent recommendations of the Public Service Pay Commission are wholly inadequate. The Naval Service is operating at 88% of capacity and personnel numbers across the board have dropped below 8,500, despite a commitment to maintain numbers at 9,500. Morale is on the floor; 1,000 people left last year and 92 left in the past month alone. This is a very real crisis so what will the Taoiseach as Minister for Defence do about all of this? When will he ask the Minister of State to withdraw his inaccurate comments from the public record?

The Government, including the Minister of State, has acknowledged for quite some time that the Naval Service is short-staffed. It has a complement of 1,094 personnel but it currently has just 934 personnel. The numbers often do not tell the full story as it is particularly short-staffed when it comes to certain specialists and technical staff. There has been no denial at all from the Government in that respect and instead we have taken action. Pay is being restored through the public sector pay agreement and pay for all staff in the public service earning €70,000 or less will be fully restored by the end of next year. In addition, we signed off on a €10 million package for the Defence Forces last week that will provide additional allowances and other improvements. The process will not stop there, as there will be a review of technician pay, which is particularly relevant because people with particular technical skills, including engineers, artificers and others are especially sought after in the private sector now and they can command very good salaries. We need to review that pay as well. Those are the kinds of actions very much under way by the Government.

I am happy to clear up any confusion about the fleet. The Naval Service currently has nine vessels. There used to be eight but, because we have invested in the fleet and have a more modern fleet than ever before, there are five new vessels while only four have been decommissioned. We have more vessels than ever before but we have fewer sailors and that has obviously created a problem.

Of the nine vessels, LÉ Róisín is going through a mid-life refit and will not be available for service until the end of the year. LÉ Eithne and LÉ Orla are going through planned maintenance, as the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, said and that was confirmed by the press office of the Defence Forces last night. What is different is that their crews are now being redeployed to the other vessels to ensure they are fully crewed and staffed. That is important from a retention point of view because we want to retain our able seamen and Naval Service staff, rather than having them spread too thinly and short-staffed on a large number of ships. It is better to have a small number of ships fully staffed and I support the decision of the flag officer in that regard.

Those vessels will be out of service until the end of September and mid-October but, with current staffing levels, it is unlikely they can be brought back into service. That means that three ships will be held in operational reserve or in maintenance, with the remaining six vessels fully operational. It means some operations will be restricted. For example, the Naval Service will not be able to return to the Mediterranean because we must instead focus on our own seas, fishery protection and drug interdiction.

Why then did the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, contradict Commodore Michael Malone? There have been expressions from very senior levels within the Defence Forces describing the relationship between them and the Department of Defence as toxic, broken and dysfunctional. That is not a sustainable situation. The Minister of State then came out and openly contradicted the commodore and attempted to place inaccurate and misleading information on the record. Does the Taoiseach not agree that the Minister of State should clarify or withdraw those remarks?

It was reported in March this year that the rate of turnover in the Defence Forces was 8.1%. That figure now stands at 9%. For the purposes of comparison, the Ministry of Defence in Britain declared a retention crisis at a turnover rate of just 5%. We are clearly dealing with a real problem of scale while the Taoiseach sits on his hands. His pay increase proposals for very low-paid workers in the Defence Forces will simply not cut it. I suggest that he is making a bad situation a whole lot worse.

Will the Taoiseach ask his Minister of State to withdraw his contradictions and inaccurate claims from the public domain?

I will not be doing that. The Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, got his information from a Naval Service briefing on Friday at Naval Service headquarters in Haulbowline. The flag officer was also present at that briefing and the Defence Forces press office confirmed only last night that two vessels - LÉ Eithne and LÉ Orla - are going into planned maintenance.

Maintenance is not the sole issue, however. There is also an issue about staffing levels and the Naval Service is understaffed and, for that reason, there is going to be a change of practice. Where boats are put into maintenance or into reserve, the crews will then be redeployed to vessels that are in service. It is never the case that all nine vessels are at sea. It is often the case that vessels are in maintenance or in refit or in dock. Rather than having a situation which has been the case for the past couple of months where crews have been thinly spread across a larger number of vessels - and I have been on these vessels - there will be a smaller number of vessels which are now fully staffed. That also makes sense from a retention point of view because, where staff are stretched across a large number of vessels, it becomes much harder for them to do their jobs. This practice will help with retention.

In the meantime, we will continue to recruit and make efforts to retain the staff in the Naval Service, with a view to putting a seventh vessel back in service later in the year, if possible.