Chefs in the Naval Service are at a critically low level and so it has been unable to fill a growing number of vacancies, despite a two-year recruitment campaign aimed at attracting professionals from the private sector.

Currently, the navy has 16 fewer chefs than it requires and this will shortly increase to 18, as two more have signalled their intention to leave the service.

This is putting added pressure on those left to feed sailors and fears have been raised it will become even more difficult to fill these posts because of a countrywide shortage of chefs in the private sector.

Despite the two-year campaign for so-called ‘Direct Entry’ recruitment, the Naval Service has not been able to get one single chef to come into its ranks from the private sector.

Setting up 'field kitchens' can be tricky for soldiers, but the job can sometimes be far more difficult for navy chefs when ships are out on patrols and they have to cook for the crew in gale-force conditions.

Irish Examiner reports on the crew crisis.