Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this Topical Issue matter on behalf of the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence. I thank the Deputy for his statement and interest. In July 2022, the then Minister for Defence accepted the recommendation of the joint civil military working group on decommissioning that the decommissioning and disposal of three Naval Service ships, namely, the LÉ Eithne, LÉ Orla and LÉ Ciara, should be progressed as soon as practicable. In effect, these three ships had reached the end of their working lives and were not in a condition for continued operations.

As the Deputy is aware, LÉ Eithne was originally constructed in Verolme Dockyard in Cork and was completed in 1984 as a helicopter patrol vessel. She was the last ship of the Irish Naval Service to have been built in Ireland and, as such, occupies a significant place in Irish maritime history. As flagship of the Naval Service, LÉ Eithne was the first Irish Naval Service vessel to cross the Atlantic Ocean to North America when, in 1986, she sailed to the United States, visiting Hamilton, New York and Boston. She has since gone on to cross the Atlantic several times. In 2006, she travelled to Argentina, marking the first deployment of an Irish Naval Service vessel to the southern hemisphere. The ship participated in events in Buenos Aires to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the death of Admiral William Brown, considered the father of the Argentine navy. In addition to her diplomatic missions, in May 2015, LÉ Eithne was the first Irish ship to deploy on Operation Pontus, a humanitarian rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea.

LÉ Eithnewas involved in 22 rescue operations, rescuing in the region of 3,376 migrants during this operation. LÉ Eithnewas also used to assist in our national response to the Covid-19 pandemic when she was deployed to Cork city in 2020 in support of Operation Fortitude acting as a forward logistics base and training platform in support of the HSE. The primary day-to-day task of the LÉ Eithnewas to provide a fishery protection service in accordance with the State's obligations as a member of the European Union. She undertook thousands of fisheries patrol days over the course of her service. Like all Naval Service vessels,LÉ Eithnewas multi-tasked and also had the ability to undertake general surveillance, search and rescue, diving operations, drugs interdiction and other duties while conducting her primary day-to-day task of providing a fishery protection service.

A number of disposal options were considered for LÉ Eithne, including the possible donation of the former flagship as a museum piece or tourist attraction; the disposal by recycling at an EU approved ship recycling facility; or disposal by way of sale at public auction. A number of organisations, including Dublin Port and the local authorities in Cork and Limerick indicated their interest in taking LÉ Eithne as a museum piece or tourist attraction following her decommissioning in 2022. Officials from the Department of Defence and the Naval Service engaged extensively with these interested parties but following, in some cases lengthy, discussions and inspections, all these parties withdrew their interest in taking the ship. Dublin Port commissioned two reports in addition to a ship survey looking at the feasibility of taking LÉ Eithneas a historic museum ship in Dublin Port. However, Dublin Port subsequently withdrew its interest in taking the vessel.

When, despite the best efforts of all involved, it was not possible to identify an alternative use for LÉ Eithnepost-decommissioning, the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence decided that the vessel should be disposed of by recycling it in an environmentally sound manner, along with two other decommissioned Naval Service vessels, LÉ CiaraandLÉ Orla. Recycling the ships gives certainty on the ultimate destination of the vessels and deals with them finally in an environmental manner in line with Government and EU policy.

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