Mr. Niall Cody:

It would have been better if it did not have significant asbestos. It would not be good if an asbestos hulk was sunk by mistake by somebody. What is important is that the registered owners of this ship wanted it back and there was a court action about it. I would be more worried if I was coming before the committee to say we had given it back and it then featured in a cigarette smuggling or drug smuggling operation here or in any other country. We would then be legitimately asked, "Why did you?" I was chatting to Mr. Gilligan about this. We often find the containers and tankers that illicit fuel goes around in are not fit to be on the road, yet we end up seizing them when we know we would be better off without them. The criminal entities tend not to use high quality product that costs a lot of money because they know the danger is that if we come across it, we will seize it.