The Government has approved the purchase of two new Navy vessels worth €50 million each.
The two offshore patrol vessels will be bought, subject to successful negotiations, from UK-based shipbuilder Babcock Marine and are expected to be delivered in 2014 and 2015 with payments extending to 2017.
Speaking at the Naval Service Base in Haulbowline, Cork, Minister for Defence Tony Killeen said he hoped to make a formal announcement regarding the contract by November this year.
Mr Killeen said the two new vessels will ensure the Naval Service continues to be “fully equipped to carry out its day to day roles in enforcing the State’s sovereign rights over our waters”.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, who was also at the event, said he was pleased by agreeing the Defence Estimates for 2011 to be able to provide this “key defence priority”.
Of the current Navy flotilla of eight vessels all but two will be at least 30 years old, the normal maximum lifespan, by 2015.
The three oldest vessels, LE Emer commissioned in 1978, LE Aoife commissioned in 1979 and LE Aisling commissioned in 1980, were recently out of service for approximately six weeks to undergo dry dock repairs.
The Ministers were in Cork for the homecoming of the LE Niamh after a ten-week cultural and trade mission to Latin America.
During the visit the ship became the first Naval Service vessel to sail the Magellan Straits and the Panama Canal.