Ireland has agreed to donate the recently decommissioned LE Aoife to the Maltese armed forces as part of an agreement reached between the two countries on expanding co-operation on defence matters.
Minister for Defence Simon Coveney met Maltese Minister for Home Affairs and National Security, Carmelo Abela while attending a meeting of EU defence ministers in Riga and agreed to a series of moves towards closer co-operation.
These include the transfer of the LE Aoife from the Irish Naval Service as well as the training of Maltese military personnel in Ireland following a successful joint training mission by both countries as part of an EU training mission in Somalia.
Mr Coveney explained that the Maltese authorities require the ship for their armed forces to assist in the patrolling of the Mediterranean Sea to deal with the ongoing difficult refugee crisis in the region.
“Recent tragic events in that part of the Mediterranean have underlined the significant challenges which need to be addressed by the international community and Ireland is very keen to play an active part in this regard,” Mr Coveney said.
“The refugee crisis represents a significant challenge for the EU and that while Ireland was not in the front line of the response to the crisis we were pleased to be in a position to support the response in this manner,” he added.
Mr Abela expressed his country's appreciation for the Irish donation which he said will be useful in supporting Malta's work in border security and the migration crisis affecting the Central Mediterranean where Malta.
Malta routinely coordinates the rescue and takes in scores of refugees from the Middle East, North Africa and the Sahel, often in treacherous sea conditions,Mr Abela said following informal discussions with Mr Coveney on the margins of the Riga meeting.
“This donation from the Irish Defence forces will contribute additional capability to the Maltese authorities, and especially the Armed Forces of Malta in their humanitarian work,” he said.
“I welcome this very important contribution from Ireland which will help in bridging a gap in Malta’s naval capacity pending our future acquisition of a new offshore patrol vessel,” Mr Abela added.
The LE Aoife had been due to be put up for auction within the next weeks following its decommissioning from the Naval Service in January but auctioneer Dominic Daly confirmed to The Irish Times that the auction had been cancelled earlier this month.
The LE Aoife which was decommissioned at the end of January at a ceremony in Waterford was the longest serving vessel in the Irish Naval Service with some 35 years service. The ship was twinned with Waterford.
During its 35 year service, it had travelled in excess of 600,000 nautical miles and been involved in the boarding of over 4,700 vessels at sea and detained over 440 fishing vessels.
During the decommissioning ceremony, Minister of State for Defence Paudge Kehoe recalled that among the LE Aoife's many missions was the recovery of the black box recorder from Air India plane which was blown up in Irish airspace on June 23rd, 1985.
Mr Kehoe said that the Department of Defence was continuing with its ship replacement programme for the Naval Service, and the second of two new ships - the LE James Joyce - is due to be delivered in "the coming months".
The LE Emer was sold at auction in October 2013 in Cork for €320,000 and was bought by a Nigerian businessman, Cyprian Imobhio for use in security and protection work for oil companies in the Niger Delta.
