Coveney committed to sending more naval vessels to the Mediterranean

If Simon Coveney is re-appointed Minister for Defence after the General Election, he intends to put it to the Government that Ireland should send another naval vessel to the Mediterranean for another rotation in helping to rescue migrants.

“The vessels were on eight or nine-week rotations last year,” he said. “To be honest, when we decided last May to send a ship, it raised many eyebrows. People wondered whether we had the capacity to do it. The Naval Service was given three weeks in which to prepare the LE Eithne to go to the Mediterranean. During the three rotations, the three ships did a phenomenal job and rescued more than 8,600 people, many of whom would not be alive today were it not for the Naval Service, supported by the Defence Forces as a whole.”

Last year was a real test for the Naval Service in particular, which had never before been asked to perform a mission that was anything like as complex as this one, he said. Not only did the service perform extraordinarily well, but there is a strong demand for it to return.

“I expect that we will do so,” he said. “Obviously, there are knock-on consequences in terms of managing patrolling hours and so on in our own jurisdiction.  I anticipate that, following the election, one of the first decisions of the new Government will be to send one of the Irish vessels back to the Mediterranean to pick up where they left off in December, working on a bilateral basis with Italy.”

Sinn Féin Deputy Sean Crowe told the Minister that one hundred and thirteen people have died in the Mediterranean since January. On a recent Friday alone, 45 people, including 17 children, died after a boat sank near two Greek islands. “We have a moral responsibility to go to the region,” he added.

(26 January)