Drugs ship MV Matthew more likely to be scrapped than sold after costing the State €20m, PAC told

Revenue warns the MV Matthew could cost the State over €20m as regulatory issues stall its sale or scrapping

The MV Matthew has been berthed in Cork Harbour since its seizure during a massive cocaine raid in September 2023. File photo: Niall Carson/PA

The notorious MV Matthew will “hopefully” be disposed of within the next six months, at which point maintenance of the ship, which was caught up in a massive drug seizure off the Cork coast, will have cost the State more than €20m.

Chair of the Revenue Commissioners Niall Cody told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that it is more likely that the ship, which has been berthed in Cork Harbour since its seizure during a massive cocaine raid in September 2023, will be scrapped than sold.

Mr Cody said Revenue has “never had to dispose of anything like this before” in reference to the giant container ship. He noted, despite more than 2,200kg of cocaine having been seized from the ship, that the consignment had only occupied a small proportion of the vessel’s capacity.

Scrapping the ship — which has cost just under €13m to maintain to date and is presently incurring costs at a rate of close to €1m per month — will “cost even more”, Mr Cody said.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

Despite the heightened expenditure required by the ship, which has a crew of 13 present on board at all times in order to maintain its functions, Mr Cody insisted that should such an operation arise once more, Revenue would proceed in the exact same manner.

Mr Cody said the potential sale of the boat had been complicated by the fact that the ship’s licence had expired, and that regulatory roadblocks had thus far prevented it from being reclassified, with no sale possible unless the MV Matthew’s paperwork was fully in order.

“There isn’t a preferred bidder, but there is definitely interest from certain bodies provided that all regulatory requirements are met,” he said. 

Those standards will have to be met regardless of whether the ship is sold or scrapped, as for the latter to happen, it would have to be moved from its berth at Cork Port. The boat is currently having its hull scraped, a process that is set to last a full month, he said.

Mr Cody insisted that Revenue would have been “in a much better position” had the eight perpetrators of the drug-smuggling operation pleaded guilty early, adding this had been its expectation given those arrested had been “caught red-handed".

However, when that didn't happen, Revenue’s legal advice had been to leave the ship alone until court approval was given to proceed with its disposal.

He said:
The last thing I want is to have the MV Matthew under our care.

Asked by committee member Seamus McGrath to clarify if the maintenance programme for the ship could eventually end up costing more than €20m given it is unlikely to be disposed of for at least another six months, Mr Cody said the expense “will definitely be more than it currently is”.

Of the €20m figure, he said: “I wouldn’t in any way rule it out, but hopefully it won’t be that much."