Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion, particularly to concur with the amendment as tabled by the Minister.

I agree with Deputies Calleary, Ó Cuív and Smith about the fine work that our armed services continue to do in the country. There is huge potential to develop the resource we have throughout the country. As Deputy O'Brien may remember, when Cork flooded a couple of years ago, uniquely, in Ireland, the Army came to the assistance of the civil powers to provide significant relief, particularly on the northside of the city which we represent. This is a difficult period for Army families, but there is a great future for our forces in this country. Personally, I would like to see their role developed, both nationally and internationally.

Over the past 20 years, many reports and commissions have identified barrack closure as a fundamental requirement towards improving military effectiveness and efficiency. If we were to start from scratch, such a small country as ours would never contemplate a position of having 28 barracks, as we had in 1998. Successive Fianna Fáil Governments over the past 12 years have closed ten of these and it is fair to say that these barracks were closed during a time of economic boom.

More noteworthy still is why these barracks will have to be closed, if any are to be closed. The deal entered into by Fianna Fáil with the troika, the people who are lending money to our country, commits us as a people to cost-cutting measures that are today unavoidable. The closure of ten barracks under Fianna Fáil may have been prevented at the time if the Government had so wished. Sadly, this Government does not have such a luxury.

The Minister, Deputy Howlin, has correctly insisted that all Ministers and Departments share the burden of restoring Ireland's economic independence through prudent managing of the nation's finance. This prudence is already reaping considerable rewards. In the past two days, for the first time in a long time unemployment figures are falling. These improvements are modest. Nonetheless the light at the end of our economic tunnel that Fianna Fáil extinguished is flickering to life for the people of our country and for our unemployed. For the first time in five years the Irish economy is experiencing growth. It is modest growth, but growth nonetheless.

The ambition of this Government is now very much not only to regain the sovereignty and financial independence that Fianna Fáil removed from this proud nation, but to be the first programme nation in Europe to do so. In fact, from being one of the malignant tumours that threatened to kill the European vision, this country is now being seen as having the leadership, integrity and courage, not only to cure our own problems but to right the prescription for this Continent as a whole. This reality makes the Fianna Fáil Party even sicker. Their delusion that all Governments would be as incompetent and ineffective as their own, has already been proven to be complete nonsense.

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