Naval vessels likely to be scrapped to avoid repeat of embarrassments

It will be the Department of Defence, not the Naval Service, which will decide what happens to the LÉ Eithne. Picture: Dan Linehan

Three Naval Service ships due to be decommissioned shortly are likely to be sold for scrap metal, rather than auctioned off, it has emerged.

That is to avoid a repeat of the diplomatic embarrassment caused when the last one sold ended up in a warlords’ hands while another ‘gifted’ to a country was described by some of its ex-navy bosses as a piece of junk.