Secretary General of the Department of Defence, Deputy Chief of Staff, Flag Officer Commanding the Naval Service, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to be in Haulbowline today for this commissioning ceremony - one of the most important occasions in the Naval Service calendar. Let me begin by offering my sincere congratulations to the nine young Naval Service officers who have just received their commissions. I am glad to see that my own county is well represented at today's ceremony with three of the nine Cadets from Tipperary. This commissioning ceremony provides us with an opportunity to acknowledge formally the immense personal achievement of all nine Ensigns. This is the day that they have aspired to for the past two years and this ceremony is an occasion which they will remember for very many years to come. It marks the culmination of a period of very intensive training and tuition during which both their physical stamina and intellectual ability have been well and truly tested. During the course of their training, at the Cadet School in the Defence Forces Training Centre in the Curragh Camp and at the Naval School here in Haulbowline, these officers have been exposed to a vast body of knowledge across a wide diversity of technical fields. They have been called upon to demonstrate personal initiative and leadership skills along with all the other qualities required of the contemporary Naval Service officer.
These courses of instruction are a challenge to each Cadet and their successful completion represents a major personal achievement for each individual member of the class. The ceremony here today serves as a formal recognition that they have personally satisfied and discharged the high standards required of officers in the Naval Service. These highly trained and skilled young officers will now proceed to play an important role in the future operational development of the Naval Service in the years to come. The Naval Service continues to present a wide range of challenging roles to all its personnel, now more so than ever before. The continuing success of the Naval Service in fulfilling the roles of fishery protection, marine search and rescue and its many other tasks has resulted in a much more widespread public appreciation of the importance of the Naval Service to the entire community. The sea is widely accepted as being an economic asset and the Government recognises the importance of protecting Irish maritime interests. It is noteworthy that upwards of 93% of Naval Service time is spent on fishery protection duties. Along with the other elements of the Defence Forces, the Naval Service make an important contribution across a wide variety of roles assigned by Government. Given that Ireland is a relatively small country, it makes sense to concentrate on developing a single, multi-role organisation with a range of capabilities appropriate to the diversity of its taskings. The success of the Naval Service in fishery protection, in search and rescue, in providing aid to the civil power, particularly drug interdiction, underlines the good sense of this approach for a small country like Ireland where the provision of a series of specialised organisations is not an economically viable option. This approach has the added benefit of underlining the importance of the Defence Forces to the community as ordinary people will always value and appreciate these everyday tasks more readily than the remoter contingencies associated with a conventional military role. The Naval Service occasionally comes in for criticism for not doing enough to combat drugs being smuggled into this country. To assume, as some have suggested, that the issue could be dealt with by increasing the size of the Naval Service fleet would be naive in the extreme. The key to successful drugs interdiction is good intelligence based operations. The Naval Service makes its contribution as part of an integrated team effort in combating drugs. The role of the Naval Service is to act on intelligence provided by the Gardaí and the Customs Service and this is what they have done successfully in the past and will continue to do in the future.
The delivery, last December, of the L.E. Róisín was a major boost for the Naval Service. At a cost of more than £22 million it is a modern, powerful and technically sophisticated ship that is well capable of performing the tasks assigned to it. I know that Lt. Commander Tom Doyle, his recent replacement Lt. Commander Brian Hevers and the crew of L.E. Róisín are extremely satisfied with the ship's facilities and operational performance to date. I am very proud to be the Minister responsible for making the resources available not alone for L.E. Róisín, the first new Naval Service ship in fourteen years, but also for another new ship similar to L.E. Róisín which will be delivered next summer, ahead of schedule. The naming of a new Naval Service ship is something that has traditionally been decided by the Minister of the day following internal suggestions and advice. I am now proposing a break with tradition and I intend establishing a competition, for secondary school pupils, to name the new ship. The competition will help raise awareness amongst young people of the role of the Naval Service and indeed it may encourage some students to consider a career in the Naval Service or in the Defence Forces generally. Details of the competition and prizes on offer will be announced at a later date. I also want to take this opportunity to thank Commodore John Kavanagh and the personnel of the Naval Service for the professional manner in which they carry out their duties. Last year Naval Service ships spent 1,059 days on fishery patrol duties, more than 2,000 sightings were reported to the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, more than 1,300 vessels were boarded, 225 offences were detected and 31 vessels were detained. With new ships and more sophisticated equipment being acquired I expect these statistics to increase in future years. In addition the Naval Service was directly involved in 11 drugs related operations. Improvements are taking place in barracks right around the country and will continue as long as it is necessary to ensure that we have the best of facilities for all military personnel. Over the past three years approximately £40 million, including £7 million here in Haulbowline, has been spent on building projects and maintenance works designed to upgrade operational, living and recreational accommodation for personnel of the Defence Forces. Plans are being prepared at present, as part of a 5-year building programme, for further building projects in the Naval Base, estimated at more than £7 million. These young officers have chosen a very challenging career and they will enjoy the very many positive, enjoyable and unique aspects of life in the Naval Service, such as comradeship, companionship and the high level of job satisfaction which comes from providing leadership and guidance to others. I would like to welcome the families and friends who have traveled here today to join in the celebrations. They should feel very proud of these young officers who have signed on to serve the State. Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to the Band of the 1st Southern Brigade, under the baton of Captain Liam Daly, for providing us with the excellent musical accompaniment which greatly enhanced the atmosphere and ambiance of the commissioning ceremony.

Thank you and enjoy the rest of the day.