Three Irish naval vessels decommissioned in one day

The decommissioning on Friday of LÉ Eithne (pictured) and the two inshore patrol vessels LÉ Orla and LÉ Ciara will free up some of the skeleton crews who have been maintaining them to work on other ships. File picture: Dan Linehan

Three Naval Service ships have been decommissioned at the same time, with speculation mounting about what is next for the vessels.

It is an unprecedented move and questions remain as to whether they will be gifted to foreign governments, sold privately, or even converted into public amenities.

The decommissioning on Friday of LÉ Eithne and the two inshore patrol vessels LÉ Orla and LÉ Ciara will free up some of the skeleton crews who have been maintaining them to work on other ships.

Speculation has mounted in the Philippines that its government is looking for LÉ Orla and LÉ Ciara. It has some vessels of the same type in its navy, mainly used for patrols around its large number of islands. A Dutch businessman is also understood to be interested in purchasing some of the vessels.

However, putting them up for public auction could be tricky. Rather embarrassingly, the last ship auctioned off, LÉ Aisling, eventually ended in the hands of Libyan warlord General Khalifa Haftar. The auction achieved just €110,000 for the State and after going through the hands of companies in Holland and the UAE it was purchased by Haftar for a reputed €1.3m.

LÉ Eithne was the last Naval Service ship built in Cobh’s Verlome Dockyard and went into service in 1984. Two years later she became the first Irish warship to cross the Atlantic.

She is expected to be replaced by a Multi-Role Vessel (MRV) which could cost up to €200m. However, progress on the project is slow and there’s no timeline on when it might be delivered.

However, there is more definitive news on the replacements for LÉ Orla and LÉ Ciara. The government recently struck a deal to buy two New Zealand navy ships as replacements and they are likely to arrive next year.

The ships are smaller than the more modern ones used by the Naval Service. The Irish ships need crews of around 45, whereas the New Zealand ones can be crewed by as little as 25.

When operational they are likely to be used for fishery patrols in the Irish Sea and based on the East coast.