The Maritime Safety Directorate (MSD) has detained the Panamanian-registered tanker Princess Eva which lost two crewmen in a deck accident off the Mayo coast earlier this week.
The 65,000-tonne tanker has been held under EU Port State control provisions, following an inspection yesterday by surveyors from the MSD.
Several defects, including cracks in the deck, were discovered during the inspection which took place in McSwyne's Bay off the Donegal coast. The ship is a single-hull tanker, and such vessels are due to be outlawed by the EU in 2015 - if not sooner under revised plans from the EU Transport Commissioner.
There is no immediate pollution risk from the ship, the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources said last night. However, a decision will be taken today in consultation with the Irish Coast Guard on possible pumping off of some 55,000 tonnes of gas-oil on board the ship. The tanker is in sheltered waters, and representatives of the Panamanian authorities have been notified. A surveyor from Panama is en route to Ireland.
As a precautionary measure, the Irish Coast Guard mobilised personnel and specialised pollution response equipment. The ship came into McSwyne's Bay on Wednesday to transfer the bodies of two crewmen who died in Tuesday's deck accident ashore.
The two men, named as Mr Pedro Sanchez and Mr Andres Manrique, were senior ships' officers, both from Argentina. A third man, Mr Carlos Hernanvex Bena, from Uruguay, is in a critical condition in University College Hospital, Galway, after his rescue by the Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter.