Over 14,000 lives have been saved by the Irish Defence Forces overseas.

Migrants desperately seeking refuge have been rescued in numerous operations by the Irish navy over the past year.

A special ceremony to honour members of the LÉ Niamh and those deployed to Sierra Leon to combat the Ebola Crisis will be held in Cork today.

Minister with Responsibility for Defence, Paul Kehoe says members will be awarded the ‘Defence Forces International Operational Service Medal’ for their hard work “The naval forces and the defence forces are carrying out very important humanitarian work, because the amount of people who are searching for a better life and come across the Mediterranean in very dangerous circumstances, and the amount of women and children that are making this journey across that don’t see any future in their own country.

“That are searching for a better future. This is quite dangerous work and it is quite demanding work aswell.”