Meanwhile, Mr. Martin said that the two former Royal New Zealand Navy inshore patrol vessels (IPVs) that were delivered to Cork last May to replace the decommissioned LÉ Orla (P41) and LÉ Ciara (P42) are expected to become operational later in 2024, following a programme of work, crew familiarisation, and training.
3rd April 2024
Marine advisors have been appointed to support the procurement of a multi-role vessel (MRV) to replace the Naval Service’s decommissioned flagship, LÉ Eithne which departed the navy’s base in Cork Harbour last month and awaits to be recycled from an EU approved facility. AFLOAT also adds above at the city’s north quays, the bow of Arklow Fame, previously reported in 2016 as the last vessel to be dry-docked (asides static museum ship Jeanie Johnston) then the state’s largest such facility in Dublin Port, before ‘finally’ forced to close in 2017, in order to facilitate major infrastructure works, since completed. Currently, the only ‘ship’ dry-dock in the Republic is the Rushbrooke based Cork Dockyard (Doyle Shipping Group) which is used by the Navy. Credit: Irish Examiner-twitter
Advisers from the marine sector have been appointed to help procure a multi-role vessel (MRV) to replace the former flagship of the Naval Service, the LÉ Eithne which was decommissioned in 2022.
According to the Tánaiste, Micheál Martin, who is also the Minister for Defence, provided an update on the newbuild replacement, said the work of the marine advisors will inform, “in due course”, a tender competition in line with the public-spending code.
The LÉ Eithne (P31) which had carried this pennant number since its commissioning into service in 1984, however last month, was towed out of the navy’s base basin on Haulbowline, Cork Harbour and is set to be recycled overseas (as the Republic does not have an EU approved facility).
At the time, the 84m vessel was only towed within the harbour as Afloat that day tracked the former flagship taken to a nearby up river-side berth alongside Cork Dockyard. This was rather apt given that this ship-repair/maintenance facility (part of the Doyle Shipping Group) was the former shipbuilding site of Verolme Cork Dockyard (V.C.D.) that built the Helicopter Patrol Vessel (HPV) at Rushbrooke, west of Cobh.
Meanwhile, Mr. Martin said that the two former Royal New Zealand Navy inshore patrol vessels (IPVs) that were delivered to Cork last May to replace the decommissioned LÉ Orla (P41) and LÉ Ciara (P42) are expected to become operational later in 2024, following a programme of work, crew familiarisation, and training.
The former Taoiseach also added that there are also a number of initiatives to counter staffing challenges. Among these, he said, was phase three of a Naval Service recruitment drive.
More from EchoLive.ie, which has a report on these developments.