The south Dublin Bay harbour town of Dun Laoghaire has moved a step closer to having a naval base created as the Government announced discussions to base a pair of former Royal New Zealand Navy Inshore patrol vessels (IPV).
Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, Micheál Martin, today announced he has instructed officials to enter into discussions with the harbour operator, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. The talks with the local authority will be about the securing of berthage space within the harbour to accommodate the IPV’s, with each of the P70 class cutters being 55m in length.
LÉ Aoibhinn (P71), which became the first of the two cutters to be operational, having been acquired from the New Zealand government for €26m. Its twin LÉ Gobnait (P72) is scheduled to be ready to enter service next year.
The Naval Service plan that the ‘Lake’ class cutters focus a lot of the patrols along the east coast of the Leinster seaboard and off the south-east; as Dún Laoghaire Harbour has been selected as the most suitable Forward Operational Base (FOB) location.
The harbour town absent of its ferry route to Holyhead for a decade, is where the Irish Defence Forces have some facilities. However, there has also been a strong campaign by Minister for State Jennifer Carroll-MacNeill for the location of the naval base to be in the harbour.
In a damning study, The Report of the Commission on Defence Forces, findings exposed several key weaknesses in the Naval Service’s ability to protect coupled by a call for the development of an East Coast base for the navy.
The Journal.ie reports more on the FOB development.
