More than €60,000 worth of military equipment written off over the past year

Almost 11,000 individual items were lost, damaged beyond repair or considered obsolete last year with a value totalling €61,489

More than €60,000 worth of military equipment was lost, damaged beyond repair or considered obsolete by the Defence Forces over the past year.

A range of items including old Irish tricolours, boxing mitts, body armour and even antifungal foot powder were written off, documents show.

During the same period, the Department of Defence said only a single sale of old military property had taken place. They raised €47,635 from the decommissioning of three former Navy vessels, which were towed to a ship recycling facility in Belgium.

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The three boats – the LE Eithne, LE Orla, and LE Ciara – could have raised more on the open market. But a decision was made to have them scrapped instead, amid fears they could end up in the hands of a warlord as had happened to the former vessel LE Aisling after it changed hands multiple times following its sale by the Department.

The Defence Forces said almost 11,000 individual items had been written off or had gone missing last year with a value totalling €61,489.

Most of the items had relatively low value and the most expensive equipment discarded was €12,000 worth of ballistic plate body armour kit.

There were also numerous Irish flags disposed of, including a 21-foot tricolour worth €85 and two 12-foot flags with a value of €259.

Items from the pandemic were deemed of no further use including over €2,000 worth of disposable face masks and full-face visors with a value of €1,375. Some of the more curious items on the inventory included lip screen sun protection, boxing mitts, a dictaphone and antifungal foot powder.

Ceremonial items were also disposed of, with 20 Defence Forces belts and 20 bands dumped.

Other kit on the inventory included stab jackets, diving hoods and diving masks, according to the records which were released under Freedom of Information.

Asked about the records, a spokesman said: “Military equipment deemed lost, damaged beyond use or uneconomical to repair or no longer in use by the Defence Forces are removed from use as per [our] regulations.”

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