I think the minister's office must be sick of the sight of my name entering their inbox but as they say "God loves a trier" and pestering is one of my fortes  :-)

Over 6 months since we handed in the petition with 10,200 signatures I asked for an update and the reply is one that still has me believing this ambition will bear fruit. 
Since I re-opened the petition just a week ago, another 300 signatures have been added and that's down to the great teamwork shown by the supporters sharing it. It has now reached 11,340 signatures and if you know others who haven't yet signed then please 'pester' them to head over here and sign this petition. The greater the numbers, the louder our voice will be and when it reaches 20,000 we'll hand it over again.

It would be great to add a countdown tab on our Facebook page so we're all kept in the loop on numbers so, if there's a web developer among our supporters who might be able to do that please message me at info@tomcreanbook.com 

And so to the reply from the office of the Minister for Defence.

'Dear Mr. Foley,

Many thanks for your email dated 20 August 2018 enquiring about the current status of the Multi-Role Vessel (MRV) project and referring to our previous meeting and correspondence regarding your proposal that the new vessel be named after Tom Crean.

The MRV project team are continuing work on the planning phase of the project. Planning for a large complex project such as this can take a considerable amount of time and there are several more phases and processes to be undertaken before the project reaches Keel Laying stage.
As we have discussed previously your proposal will be borne in mind at that stage.'

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