Peter Kelly (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

In fairness to Deputy Barrett's party, when Mr. Louis Belton was Deputy for Longford he kept the barracks open by political intervention. I recognise that achievement. We kept it open for the succeeding 23 years.

I intend to arrange a meeting between the Minister and the town and county mayors. They will be coming to Dublin to protest outside Leinster House on Wednesday week. I have been in contact with the Permanent Defence Forces Other Ranks Representative Association, PDFORRA, and hope to meet them tomorrow. I will continue to impress upon the Minister and the Chief of Staff the importance of keeping this barracks open. The Chief of Staff will meet the soldiers at Longford barracks this Thursday and I hope he will bring clarity to the matter.

This is a tough budget — we are in hard times. The Government takes no pleasure in telling people it does not have sufficient finances. It has a duty to govern and to make decisions that are in the interests of the State and the people. Short term, quick fixes are not the answer. We owe it to our children and to future generations to straighten out our finances however long it takes and to ensure that we hand over the State finances to them in as good a state as they have been for the past ten years.

I do not believe anybody could have in their wildest dreams envisaged the wealth we enjoyed for the past ten years. We are all completely shocked by the recent deterioration in finances worldwide in such a short space of time. I wish the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, and the Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen, well. It is a tough time. They have a duty to this country and have, and will continue to, govern well. This is an important time in our history and tough decisions had to be made. Sadly, not all were popular decisions but they will in the long term prove to be in the best interests of Ireland and its people.

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