Government to buy €300m naval vessel while current ships tied up with issues

The Royal New Zealand Navy multi-role vessel HMNZS Canterbury. It is expected the new vessel targeted by the Department of Defence will be similar in style to this. File Picture: Kristopher Radder

The Department of Defence has confirmed it is to buy a multi-role vessel (MRV) for the navy, costing up to €300m, while ships of near that value are non-operational due to mechanical issues and personnel shortages.

Senator Gerard Craughwell has expressed “serious concern about investing in new hardware at this stage” when there are not the personnel to crew the ships we have.