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Displaying items by tag: Bonus Scheme

Personnel in the Naval Service who signed up for a special loyalty bonus to ensure there were enough crews to undertake sea patrols are still waiting to be paid the first tranche of the money, “which is now months overdue.”

The Sea Service Commitment Scheme was introduced to much fanfare last January by Minister for Defence Simon Coveney in an effort to provide some certainty about adequate numbers of personnel being available for offshore patrols. It was introduced because of the lack of adequate crew numbers in general, and specialists in particular.

The Naval Service has been dogged by personnel shortages in recent years. This has led to two ships being tied up and others delayed going out to sea on patrols because they don't have full crews.

The loyalty payment of €10,000, which is taxable, was offered to those who signed up to complete two years duty at sea. This was supposed to be paid in four six-monthly tranches.

More from the Irish Examiner story. 

Published in Navy

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago