Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I do not believe it is a breach of the pay agreement. My understanding of the pay agreement is that if we were proposing to close barracks in normal circumstances we would consult. As Deputy Deenihan knows, this was a budgetary decision taken by Government in regard to cutting public expenditure generally. This relates to the Department of Defence specifically. It was not a unilateral decision by me to close barracks on which I got the agreement of Government. It was a collective decision of Government in the context of the budget. It was a budgetary measure and we are under no obligation to discuss in advance items that will be in the budget. That is the context of it. If it was being done in the usual way outside the context of a budget, whereby I decided that we needed fewer barracks, I would consult with the representative organisations.

See this speech in context