By Mike McBride

Copyright bbc

“The facilities were not ready in Belfast,” Donato Martínez said in an interview with the Financial Times.

“We shuffled a little bit things for ship one into Spain, and we moved from Spain things for ships two and three.”

Under the original plan, the ship’s midsection was to be built at H&W’s Belfast yard, with the bow constructed at H&W’s Appledore facility in Devon and other sections in Spain, before final assembly in Belfast.

But under the revised plan, the bow will be built in Devon, while the midsection and the remainder of the first ship will now be constructed in Cádiz.

All three vessels are still to be assembled in Belfast.