State to pursue new €200m ship project

The new ship will require a bigger crew than the P60 class ships the navy currently operates, such as LÉ William Butler Yeats and LÉ James Joyce, pictured. Picture: Denis Minihane

The State looks likely to seek expressions of interest from international shipbuilders before the end of the year to construct a €200m-plus multi-role-vessel (MRV) for the navy.

While the MRV is planned as a replacement for the recently decommissioned former flagship LÉ Eithne, it will be far larger, far more sophisticated, and as the name suggests, will be designed to offer operational input not just from the navy but the army, and air corps.

A Department of Defence spokeswoman said a multi-disciplinary team is currently working on designing the requirements for the vessel.

The design team is being led by marine consultants Houlder Ltd, based in Scotland, “who were appointed by the Department of Defence to support the civil/military project team”.

Because of changes to public tender competitions, in line with the Government’s public spending code, which were announced last March, the design team will not have to complete a separate strategic assessment report on the project and this will instead be incorporated into a preliminary business case report.

It is expected this will cut paperwork and speed up procurement of the vessel, making an approach for expressions of interest from international shipbuilders likely by the end of this year.

In 2015, the Department of Defence first identified the need for an MRV when it published a White Paper on Defence.

The Department of Defence wants to see the ship designed to have multi-functional capabilities, allowing it to react to several potential scenarios both at home and abroad, which into the future could need a rapid deployment of military personnel to climate change crises both in Ireland and overseas.

The ship will be designed to accommodate helicopter/s and act as a troop carrier.

The plan to build the MRV for the navy was not only enshrined in the White Paper but backed up by its inclusion in the Government’s National Development Plan for major capital projects and in the Defence Forces’ equipment development plan.

Emergency situations

The ship, once constructed, will enable the Defence Forces to deploy to a number of "emergency situations". 

It could provide quick troop deployment to react to severe weather events, and enhance deployment on overseas United Nations missions where the army, air corps, and navy would have a combined role in peacekeeping duties.

Former taoiseach Enda Kenny, when he was the senior government minister in charge of defence, suggested it could be equipped with an on-board "field hospital".

It has been suggested the vessel could also be used to aid Garda and customs operations off the coast.

The Department of Defence spokeswoman said at this stage it was too early to release exact specifications for the ship’s design.

However, one thing is certain: it will require a bigger crew than the P60 class ships the navy currently operates, such as LÉ William Butler Yeats and LÉ James Joyce. They are normally crewed by between 45 and 50 personnel. The P60s are about 90m long, whereas MRVs are typically 150m in length.