Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)

Listening to the Minister one would think this was a strategic decision. Do the closures not arise from the fact that the Minister had to achieve economies in his budget this year? The real reason this is happening is to save money. Although there may be side benefits, such as those the Minister outlined, this would not have happened if he had not been asked to achieve economies. What evaluation has been done on the properties to be disposed of? Was any evaluation done before the budget announcement? Will we reach a situation such as the Minister's predecessor reached in October 1998 when he had to admit to the House that private security in Ballincollig was costing €1,400 per day? In these recessionary times there is very little demand for any properties here, to say the least. These could be on the Minister's hands for quite some time and a high security bill could be involved. What is his response to PDFORRA's estimate that the additional facilities that need to be provided at Dundalk, Finner Camp in Ballyshannon and Custume barracks in Athlone could cost approximately €3 million?

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