Gabrielle McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Like everybody else, I commend the Army and the Naval Service on the work they do, and I also commend the Minister and his Department. The Minister has indicated, with respect to the capital investment programme, that he will provide for ongoing refurbishment for a diverse defence property portfolio. I am always harassing the Minister about this but my concern relates to the use of barracks in my constituency. I would like to see barracks, in my constituency and elsewhere, used for Civil Defence or Reserve Defence Force training. I am very concerned about using the barracks as a reception centre for refugees. They are not appropriate for that in any shape or form. Having visited those barracks, to my mind it would not be appropriate to put families into them.

I hope the Minister would not consider doing that. I ask the Minister to consider, for example, using the barracks in Mullingar for a Civil Defence headquarters or something like that. We should utilise the barracks and not allow them to become run-down.

The Minister referred to the overseas missions. I wonder whether there is provision for those who come back from those missions with post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD? The Minister spoke of pensions and looking after families, but there are soldiers coming back who are suffering from PTSD. They feel they are not getting the care that they and their families were promised before they went on the missions. I am concerned about particular members of the Defence Forces.