The Minister for the Marine, Mr Ahern, has welcomed the decision by the British government not to allow two former US Navy ships to be dismantled in the UK.
The decision to return the ships to the US "vindicates the stance adopted by the Irish Government on the matter", Mr Ahern said.
He added: "I have said it was absolute folly to transport vessels of such vintage and containing such potentially hazardous materials across the Atlantic for scrapping."
The two ships will be kept temporarily at Hartlepool port in north-west England, but a decision on two other ships bound for the UK has yet to be made.
Britain's Environment Secretary, Ms Margaret Beckett, said that the ships would be kept at Hartlepool before returning to the US because that was the safest option.
The plans to allow the scrapping of the two vessels were abandoned because the project would have broken international and EU law, Ms Beckett said.
The decision to allow the first two ships to dock at Hartlepool followed discussion between Ms Beckett and the US Transportation Secretary, Mr Norman Mineta. "Temporary storage at Hartlepool best meets objectives pending their return to the US at the earliest opportunity," Ms Beckett said.
Mr Ahern said he believed Irish efforts to highlight the movement of the controversial vessels across Irish waters had not been in vain. "We have not alone brought our concerns to the US and UK authorities, but also invoked the EU," he said.
Mr Ahern is to meet the British ambassador next week to discuss the controversial scrapping agreement between the US and Britain that would have seen 13 contaminated vessels pass through Irish waters. The decision not to allow the scrapping was announced as the two vessels came within 220 miles of the Irish coast yesterday.
The Naval Service and Air Corps monitored the movement of the ships throughout their journey in Irish waters.
The vessels are contaminated with asbestos and other toxic materials. A further 130 vessels are currently in the US waiting to be scrapped.