Decision on sale of yacht to be made after consultancy review on Naval Service

THE Department of Defence says it does not intend to sell off the confiscated yacht, Brime, before completion of the Government's consultancy review on the Naval Service and Air Corps.

The 64 foot ketch, which was seized in a £20 million drugs haul by the Naval Service three years ago, was advertised for sale earlier this month, but no final decision on disposal has been taken by the Minister for Defence, Mr Barrett, a spokesman said. Nor is there any difference of legal opinion on ownership of the vessel, he added.

RACO, the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, has queried the Department's authority to sell the yacht on the basis that it was initially awarded to the Naval Service by court order, after its seizure by the LE Orla eight miles west of Loop Head, Co Clare, in July 1993.

It was the biggest drugs consignment seized in State history at the time, but has since been surpassed by the recent haul, valued at £40 million, on a Colombian ship at Moneypoint.

During sentencing of two of the four Brime crew at the Criminal Circuit Court in Tralee, Co Kerry, in 1994, it was ordered that the yacht be forfeited and "given to the Navy to be used as they see fit". The two men, a Dutch and a Belgian national, received 16 year sentences.

A similar court order was made at the sentencing of the two remaining defendants, Gerry Fitzgerald from Dublin, and a Briton, Wayne Bland, in May 1994. The two received 10 year terms respectively.

In December 1995 the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of the Dutch and Belgian nationals, but one of the original orders for forfeiture of the Brime was changed in favour of the Minister for Defence.

RACO contends that as there are now two orders one giving the vessel to the Naval Service and one to the Minister this places a question mark over the Department of Defence's authority to sell.

The Department says there is no confusion on ownership, but stresses that the outcome of the Price Waterhouse review of the Naval Service, and the Efficiency Audit Group's response to this, will determine the vessel's future. However, two weeks ago, the Department told The Irish Times that plans to convert the ketch into a training vessel for drug interdiction had been abandoned on cost grounds.

Such is the condition of the 21 year old yacht that its value, estimated at £0.25 million at prime, has been reduced considerably, and it could be sold for as little as £25,000. It is understood the Department believes that the cost of a refit, up to £200,000 at commercial rates, may be better spent on buying a new yacht for drug interdiction training, or chartering different types of boats.

However, RACO contends that the refit could cost £90,000, given the availability of expertise at the Haulbowline naval base where the craft is being stored.