The Government has announced the purchase of two inshore patrol vessels from the New Zealand Defence Forces to add to the Naval Service fleet here.
The announcement was made by the Minister for Defence Simon Coveney at a function at the Naval Service headquarters in Cork.
The new inshore patrol vessels were purchased for a combined cost of €26 million. They will each require a crew of 24 - half the size of the crew required for the Navy's existing offshore ships.
Notwithstanding the Naval Service's current recruitment difficulties, Mr Coveney said purchasing the two vessels made sense at this time.
"What we are doing is essentially replacing outdated ships that are 37 years old with much newer ships that are just a decade old," he said.
"They require far less crew; they are more efficient and quicker. They have a shallower draft so, what this does is it provides for a far more balanced fleet."
The two new vessels are expected to go into service next year on the east coast and in the Irish Sea. They will be used for fisheries protection and search and rescue.
Minister Coveney described their purchase as an interim measure.
"It is good value. We are modernising our fleet, making it more balanced," he said.
The Minister said the purchase of the two vessels was "absolutely not" a signal that the Government was giving up on being able to provide a full crewing complement for the Naval Service's existing fleet.
He pointed out that work had already begun to commission a new multi-purpose vessel which would become the largest ship in the Naval Service fleet.
