Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I am sure Deputy McHugh is not suggesting we could make savings by leaving alone the number of barracks, even though there are clearly too many for an army the size of the Irish Army. We are closing four of the seven barracks in the Border region. This is because the threat justifying the establishment of those barracks has disappeared. As far as I am aware, the British army has closed or is in the process of closing all military installations along the Border.

I refer to the point about the socio-economic benefits of the barracks put by the local chamber of commerce. There is a chamber of commerce in my constituency and occasionally it puts a case to me on some matter in good faith. We have all heard these arguments in cases where barracks have closed previously and they did not hold up. On one such occasion the same arguments about the possibility of people moving and spending money elsewhere were made, but most people did not move at all. If someone lives in a certain place that person will shop in the locality. Such people simply must travel a greater distance to work. I do not claim this is a strong argument, but we have found in the case of some barracks closures that the development which subsequently took place on the sites of the former barracks were of economic benefit to the region. I recognise that was in better economic times.

I realise the intent of Deputy McHugh's remarks and I appreciate he proposes a compromise and that he does not completely oppose the policy. We have examined the matter very closely. There are people in my party who have made strong representations to me on the matter. We have examined the matter very closely and decided that the original decision as outlined in the budget will stand. I am confident that when considered in retrospect the decision will be of benefit from the point of view of cost savings and the consolidation of training operations.

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