Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy referred to my recent visit to Cork. I live there, actually. I live a couple of miles from the naval base, so I visit it regularly. "No" is the straight answer to the Deputy's question. I was not informed that another ship would potentially be tied up. We are seeking to decommission three ships in the Naval Service. That is well known at this stage. To replace them, we have purchased two new ships that are coming from New Zealand and will be in at the end of the first quarter of next year. We are then going to move ahead with the development of a multipurpose vessel which will be the largest ship ever commissioned in the Defence Forces and the Naval Service. Obviously, that will take several years to develop. There is a lot happening in terms of reorientating the fleet. The Deputy is correct. In order for that to work, we need to get more people into the Defence Forces or the Naval Service, which will shortly become the Irish navy. Of course, we have plans to do that. I can give the Deputy the details of all the inductions in 2021 and so far in 2022 afterwards, rather than reading them all out now. There are people coming into the Defence Forces but not enough of them, and there are too many people leaving.

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