Madam, - It is 20 years since Irish Shipping Ltd was put into liquidation, on November 14th 1984, by the Fine Gael/Labour coalition government then in office.
However, the Fianna Fáil party in opposition vowed to reconstitute a national deep-sea merchant fleet if it was returned to power at the next general election in 1987. Who can forget the impassioned plea of John Wilson, the Fianna Fáil spokesman on transport, when, in Dáil Éireann on June 25th 1985, he pleaded with the government parties, "for God's sake, let us have a deep-sea fleet"?
Fianna Fáil was duly elected in March 1987 with that famous Irish mariner and intrepid explorer of offshore islands, Charles J. Haughey, as Taoiseach. He was given an extremely cost-effective opportunity, by joint Irish and Scandinavian shipping interests, to put his pre-election promise on a national deep-sea fleet into effect.
The opportunity was spurned with an embarrassing lack of courtesy.
Now, some 20 years and several Fianna Fáil-led governments later, we remain an island on the Atlantic seaboard without a deep-sea fleet.
To paraphrase the immortal words of another well-known Taoiseach: "Sin é Fianna Fáil for you"! - Yours, etc.,
JOHN HIGGINS,
Hazelbrook Road,
Dublin 6W.