Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I beg the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's indulgence to refer to another defence issue. I commend the Minister on the manner in which he swiftly acted and commissioned a report into the deaths of the Army personnel, Corporal Fintan Heneghan, Private Mannix Armstrong and Private Thomas Walsh. Information was provided to the Minister early in his term of office, and he commissioned a report and has brought a 22 year fight for justice to an end. The Minister deserves great credit for the manner in which he handled that. It is a shame it took so long. I understand there may be issues within the report that must be considered for future deployment, and at some appropriate time subject to the agreement of the Whips, there might be an opportunity to make statements on it in the House. I commend the Minister.

On this CS4 regulation, surely it is difficult to finalise the re-organisation of the Defence Forces without having any knowledge of what the numbers will be in February next. In the manner in which the Garda Commissioner has gone about preparing some work that we discussed yesterday, is there not a structure within the Defence Forces that can identify what the overall position of those 9,500 personnel will be in February next?

There are rumours in Clonmel, Mullingar and Cavan this week and there are rumours circulating within the Army community that their barracks are to be closed. The Mullingar issue is to be the subject of a topical issue debate following these questions, but is there some sort of plan, similar to what is going on in the Garda, to anticipate what the reduction will be and what the services will be on 1 March next year?

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