The Naval Service has been left "waiting for Godot" in relation to its future, according to Capt Peadar McElhinney, the service's second most senior officer until his retirement yesterday.
Capt McElhinney expressed serious disappointment at the Government's failure to "accept in good faith" the findings of the most recent Price Waterhouse Navy/Air Corps review.
The administration appeared to be "burying" parts of the report it did not like, he said. Capt McElhinney is succeeded as officer commanding the Naval Base by Capt Frank Lynch today. Speaking at his final parade in Haulbowline, Capt McElhinney said the lack of clear direction and its effect on morale had resulted in some 68 people leaving the Naval Service in the first eight months of this year, compared to 75 for all of last year. Although the review, published over a year ago, had not given the service everything it wanted, it offered a well-structured personnel policy which would allow the service to control recruitment, promotions, training and a transparent career plan.
Capt McElhinney said he took "great encouragement" from the comments made by the Minister for Defence last month about the future of the service as a single multi-tasked agency and the commitment to implement the review in full. However, the implementation plans for the review are expected to be watered down versions of the original consultants' recommendations.
The Minister, Mr Smith, told The Irish Times last month he had turned down a Department of Finance proposal to amalgamate the Naval Service and Air Corps into a coastguard. It was the first clear indication after months of uncertainty that he still intended to adhere to the spirit of the Price Waterhouse review of both defence wings.
Capt McElhinney steps down after a long and turbulent career, during which he held key appointments at sea and ashore. He has also served overseas with the United Nations - in the Middle East from 1985 to 1987 and with the UN special mission to Afghanistan in 1997-98, during which his second-in-command, an Italian lieutenant colonel, was killed an attack directed at the UN.
Born in Strabane, Co Tyrone, Capt McElhinney joined as a cadet in January 1959, at a time when the fleet comprised three steam-driven corvettes. Among the highlights of his service were a dramatic encounter with a Russian vessel in 1975, while commanding the minesweeper, LE Fola; the arrest by the largest boarding party on record of a Russian trawler, the Belmoroye, caught fishing inside the 12-limit; and the sea search and investigation into the sinking of the Clogherhead prawn trawler, Sharelga, by a submarine in 1981.
In 1979 he oversaw the construction of the former flagship, LE Aisling, at the former Verolme Cork Dockyard and was its first commanding officer.
The contract for a ninth naval ship is due to be confirmed at the naming ceremony for the eighth Naval Service vessel, LE Roisin, in Devon later this week. The £24 million order will take another two years to complete, by which time the oldest vessel, the LE Deirdre, is expected to have been decommissioned.
