NEGOTIATIONS TO buy two new Naval Service offshore patrol vessels at an estimated cost of €100 million have been sanctioned by the Government.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan and Minister for Defence Tony Killeen confirmed the development yesterday, when they marked the arrival home of the LE Niamhpatrol ship to Haulbowline, Cork harbour, from a trade mission to South America.
The first ship in the revised fleet replacement plan is expected to be delivered in 2014, and the second the year after, with payment extending to 2017. The new vessels will replace ships which will be 36 years old by that time – with the youngest ship in the eight-strong fleet already nine years old.
Thinning hulls on the 33-year-old LE Emer, the LE Aoife(32) and LE Aisling(30) have resulted in repairs to ship hulls and lost ocean-going time. The situation prompted representative organisation PDFORRA to express concerns last year about crew safety at a time when Ireland had lodged a claim with the United Nations to extend sovereign rights to 13 times the land mass of the Republic.
A fleet replacement programme from 2008 to 2012 had been agreed by Mr Killeen’s predecessor, Willie O’Dea, but it was frozen due to budgetary constraints.
Mr Killeen emphasised that the decision to proceed with the final award of the contract to purchase with Babcock Marine in Scotland was subject to negotiations “reaching a satisfactory outcome”. He said that he hoped to be able to make a formal announcement on awarding the contract by November of this year.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Brian Cowen is also expected to signal Government support today for a maritime and energy research campus in Cork harbour, involving the Naval Service, University College Cork and Cork Institute of Technology.