Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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53. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the business case put forward in favour of the purchase by the Naval Service of three new ships, with a fourth ship on order at a cost of approximately €500,000,000 as against the refurbishment of LÉ Emer, LÉ Deirdre and LÉ Aisling; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52905/17]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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The White Paper on Defence underpins the ongoing replacement of the Naval Service fleet. In this regard, in the absence of a mid-life upgrade, naval vessels have a planned life expectancy of 20 to 25 years. The three ships most recently decommissioned by the Naval Service were LÉ Emer, commissioned in 1978, LÉ Aoife, commissioned in 1979 and LÉ Aisling, commissioned in 1980. Extensive engineering surveys and analyses were carried out by the Naval Service on these vessels given their age and service history prior to decommissioning.

There is a programme of continuous planned and preventative maintenance to ensure that all Naval Service vessels are kept in a seaworthy condition. The Naval Service will only send ships to sea when they are satisfied the ships are in a seaworthy and safe condition. The older ships are monitored through increased inspections and maintenance of hull strength, fatigue life and machinery condition based on actual service history. All factors such as condition of the hull structure, condition and maintenance/failure history of machinery, electrical and piping systems and operating profile and environments are evaluated to determine fatigue lives of critical structural components.

The most significant investment of recent years by the Defence Organisation has been on the procurement of the new Off-Shore Patrol Vessels for the Naval Service. This programme has seen the delivery of three new Naval Service vessels in the past 3 years. The LÉ Samuel Beckett was commissioned in May 2014, LÉ James Joyce was commissioned in September 2015 and LÉ William Butler Yeats was commissioned into service in October 2016.

In June 2016, a contract for an additional sister ship was placed with Babcock International, a British company, bringing investment in the new ships programme to some €250 million since 2010. The fourth ship, to be named LÉ George Bernard Shaw is scheduled for delivery in mid-2018.

The acquisition of these modern new vessels, combined with an ongoing maintenance regime for all vessels within the fleet, and the continuous process of refurbishment, refit and repair, will ensure that the operational capabilities of the Naval Service, as the State’s principal seagoing agency, are maintained to the greatest extent.

In addition to acquisitions, it is normal practice in a ship’s life to carry out a mid-life refurbishment programme so as to extend the useful life of a ship to thirty or more years. In this regard, the Defence Organisation has commenced planning for a mid-life refurbishment programme for LÉ Roisin and LÉ Niamh. This structured mid-life refurbishment programme will future proof the vessels, allow for preventative maintenance and address obsolescence of equipment through capitalising on advancements in technology, thus ensuring reliability of the vessels for the next 15 years.

As it stands three ships in the current flotilla are over 30 years old (LÉ Eithne, LÉ Ciara and LÉ Orla). The White Paper provides for the replacement of the current Naval Service flagship LÉ Eithne with a multi role vessel (MRV) which will be enabled for helicopter operations and will also have a freight carrying capacity. Planning has commenced on this project and it is intended to hold a public tender competition in due course to cover the supply of the MRV. This, of course, is subject to the availability of funding within the overall Defence capital funding envelope. The cost of the MRV will only be known once the tender competition is concluded.

Future Naval Service capabilities are being planned as part of the White Paper project planning process which will determine the Defence Organisation’s maritime capability requirements.