LÉ Eithne
Sorcha Pollak, in the Irish Times, reports:
“The Irish naval vessel LÉ Eithne is to be dispatched to the Mediterranean sea to participate in an EU search and rescue mission for migrants fleeing north Africa, the Minister for Defence has said. Simon Coveney told RTE radio [this] morning the navy was preparing the LÉ Eithne so it would be ready to leave for the Mediterranean by Friday, May 8th.”
“He said the vessel was being prepared in Haulbowline naval base in Cork harbour so that it could “successfully save people and drop them to local ports in the vicinity of the Mediterranean”.”
“Asked whether there was any plan in place to bring migrants back to the Republic of Ireland, Mr Coveney said it wouldn’t be practical to be picking people up from the sea and bringing them back to the State.”
LÉ Eithne to participate in migrant search and rescue (Sorcha Pollak, Irish Times)
LÉ Eithne will be ready to travel to Mediterranean on Friday (Morning Ireland, RTÉ)
Photocall Ireland
Surely the answer to stop people from throwing themselves into the sea is to NOT take any of them?
Its not a factor in people leaving
Go forth Eithne.
Hats off to Coveney – not the first example of good decision-making by he in response to emergencies. Previous Ministers would’ve sat pondering for months, worried about their vote collateral.
Leave them be, it’s not our problem.
You’re a wonderful human being.
they kinda are because you facilitated the destabilisation of the middle east by helping the US war machinr, it would only be fair if you actually did something to remedy the situation, but sure you can’t even run your country, nevermind helping others.
Fair cop.
What is the link between middle eastern stability and central African migrants?
….I guess he’s been reading and watching and listening to something called news.
Curse that news with its information, helping inform opinions using info. Damn them!
You’re not my problem either yet, remarkably, if you had a heart attack tomorrow you’d be admitted to a health service partly funded by me.
Will it be flying the irish flag ? if so anyone picked up from the sea , well ill bet you can guess the rest ….
Shoulda gone to Specsavers mate…. “Asked whether there was any plan in place to bring migrants back to the Republic of Ireland, Mr Coveney said it wouldn’t be practical to be picking people up from the sea and bringing them back to the State.”
Surely a simple eyeroll would suffice to answer that stupid question.
I did, but when I hit refresh I couldn’t see it on screen.
Who asked them would we take them back to Ireland? Pick up a few hundred at best and then sail a few days back to Ireland and then a few days back. Yeah that would be a good idea. Jesus.
shouldn’t the far too few Irish naval boats be used to patrol/protect Irish territorial water which is one of the largest in the world ?
This was addressed on the programme this morning.The current fleet is 9 ships, and the latest addition (the LE James Joyce (P62) is due for delivery very soon – before the end of the month, I think. Not all vessels are at sea undertaking patrols at the same time, so there is little gap in our capability.
good to know.thanks.
Futile drugs war vs life-saving humanitarian mission? I would have thought the choice was obvious.
not all they do and Spain,France,Italy,U.S.,U.K.,Russia etc have big navies in the area
Didn’t the Maltese Navy dismiss the proposed donation of the L.E Eithne as “junk”?
You are thinking of the former LE Aoife. The LE Eithne is the flagship of the Naval Service and still very much in commission.
The Maltese Navy had concerns, but it was more the popular opinion that called it junk. Its not: it may be old and no longer up for North Atlantic conditions, but it is still very seaworthy.
i’ll give ya 200 hundred euro for her now, in cash.
*spits on hand, holds it out for a deal..
id say they would rather drown than come back here and be treated like a zoo animal while they sit on their hands for ten years while they seek asylum…actually no…zoo animals are treated better…
in fact zoo animals are treated better than our gov treats some of it own citizens…
throw burton to the lions
End point mitigation. The problem is at the source, not the sea.
Oh is that all we need? Jesus, why didn’t you say so sooner!
We have some clowns running this country.
A tiny island with a few boats.
Idiotic.
We can’t even patrol our own coast sufficiently, never mind wasting money and time on this PR nonsense!!!
PR nonsense, or you know, taking part in operations as part of the EU. Whatever…
+1
Anyone interested you can follow her progress here https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/oldshipid:291029/oldmmsi:250099000/olddate:lastknown