Sir, - The assertion (The Irish Times, April 26th) by the Minister for Defence, Mr Michael Smith, that the Naval Service is "now larger than at any time in our history" is inaccurate.
During the period 1923/24, the Coastal and Marine Service comprised the armed former British Admiralty tug, Dainty (460 tons) and the fishery cruiser Muirchu, plus 12 armed trawlers bought from the British government.
During the 1939/45 emergency period, the Marine Service was eventually equipped with six motor torpedo boats in addition to the Muirchu, the armed trawler Fort Rannoch, the mineplanter Shark and a sail training schooner, Isaalt.
And from 1980 to 1984, the Naval Service had in commission four OPVs of the Deirdre/Emer class, three coastal minesweepers and an armed auxiliary, Setanta, which carried out numerous fishery patrols.
It is interesting to note that when a government meeting, at which Eamon de Valera presided in 1946, decided that the Naval Service should become a permanent component of the Defence Forces, it was agreed on expert naval advice that six corvettes be purchased over a period of four years, and that the MTBs should be retained in commission with modified diesel engines. And that was to provide a naval and fishery patrol within a three-mile limit, compared with a 200-mile limit today.
Of course the MTBs never got their diesel engines and were sold off. Only three corvettes were ever purchased, and the Naval Service would have died of a neglect imposed by the Department of Finance had Ireland not joined the EEC, with a begging bowl at the ready. - Yours etc.,
Tom MacGinty, Killiney, Co Dublin.