Taxpayer picking up €13m bill for outsourcing maintenance of navy ships

The Department of Defence has refused, at present, to reveal how much it is paying the Finnish company to get all P60 ships operational. Picture: David Creedon / Anzenberger

It is costing the taxpayer nearly four times as much employing a company to get stricken naval ships back on patrol than it would have if Naval Service engineering experts had not quit for better pay and conditions in the private sector.

The Irish Examiner understands more than €13m is being paid to Finnish-owned company Wärtsilä for a five-year contract to maintain the Naval Service's four newest P60 class ships — LÉ Samuel Beckett, LÉ James Joyce, LÉ William Butler Yeats and LÉ George Bernard Shaw.

As recently revealed by this newspaper, since the start of the year, the Naval Service has only been able to put one ship on patrol. The rest are under maintenance, and it has been claimed the reason for this is the internal expertise to do such jobs has been lost.

The company has not been given a maintenance contract for the two older P50 class ships LÉ Niamh and LÉ Róisín, which is adding to speculation on their future.

The Department of Defence has refused, at present, to reveal how much it is paying the Finnish company to get all P60 ships operational but says this will become a matter of public record in due course. 

It signed the contract last November.

A spokeswoman for the Finnish company also declined to say how much it was costing, citing it regards such information as commercially sensitive at this time.

Tadhg McCarthy, a former chief petty officer specialist ERA (engine room artificer), who left the navy because of poor pay and long hours said: “The navy should have a full complement of one chief petty officer [CPO] ERA and 10 petty officer [PO] ERA's, tasked to carry out routine maintenance on ships with the help of civilian Naval Dockyard personnel. 

"But there are no PO ERAs left.” 

He said the navy previously paid to send up to 20 technicians for specialist Wartsila training on delivery of the P60 class ships, only for them all to leave due to poor pay and conditions.

“They are the people who would look after routine maintenance on ships. The wage cost for these 11 ERAs for years is approximately €3.5m,” Mr McCarthy said.

In a statement, the Department of Defence said the four P60 class ships are powered by Wartsila main engines and associated propulsion systems.

It added the five-year contract was awarded to Wärtsilä UK (Division) Ltd for maintenance of these systems, including parts, training and 24/7 remote operational support and that this "comprehensive and optimised service agreement will streamline procedures and reduce unplanned downtime, helping ensure vessel availability". 

A Wärtsilä spokeswoman said it had a "tailored" agreement to provide the navy with experts would forecast early indications of equipment deterioration and conditions that cause equipment to run less efficient.

She added they would supply "support and insight into equipment maintenance planning and execution, including spare parts, technical management, labour, tools and anything else needed to execute maintenance", and what was termed as additional "operational support".

She said they had about 3,000 field service professionals available to support customers in 70 countries across the globe. 

The last quarter figures for 2023 published by the Department of Defence show Wärtsilä was paid about €101,000 for work it has carried out on some navy vessels.