Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is interesting. Listening to the first half of the Minister of State's response, I thought it was brilliant that she outlined the whole history of the LÉ Eithne for me. We will lose all of that. I am disappointed by the fact that the contracts have been signed, but contracts can be pulled. I will go to both Ministers who are responsible because, as I said, the amount of history attached to this boat and the harbours can be seen in the first half of the Minister of State's response. I cannot believe that the councils were not interested. There must have been money involved, but surely a State agency, such as the Defence Forces or Naval Service could do something. It is an absolute travesty that we will lose such an historic part of our culture and our proud peacekeeping missions. The Minister of State named so many places, that it was the first ship to sale across X, Y and Z and spoke about all the humanitarian stuff. I am stumped for words and I am not stumped very often.

The second half of the Minister of State's reply states that the likes of Dublin Port and others were not interested. I still make the assumption that the Irish Government should invest money in this. It belongs to the Irish people. The history belongs to the Irish people. It is a massive mistake when you have so much potential in the story, the history and the location it is in, that this resource would just be signed off under a contract, towed away to Belgium and scrapped and that should be the end of it. Perhaps in another 100 years when the centenary of the scrapping of the ships comes, we will read about it. I thank the Minister of State for the answer. We do not always get the proper answer. I will still follow up with the Tánaiste and Minister to see whether there is any way of reversing this because it would be a wonderful asset.

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