Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

The value for money review discovered there was a low incidence of unscheduled maintenance resulting in lost patrol days. However, it also discovered that the situation could be improved in two ways. The first of these is by putting in place a dedicated maintenance management team in place, which has been done, and the second is by drawing up preventative maintenance manuals for each ship, work on which has already commenced.

I agree that the economic situation may impact on the replacement of naval vessels. To date, however, I have not received instructions to the effect that I should not proceed in this regard. A system is in place to replace the vessels in question and I have not, as yet, been informed that I should discontinue the process of replacement.

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