Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Deputy's support for our Defence Forces and I know he would agree with me that they perform a very important function both in serving the civil power domestically within this State and in the work they have undertaken under the auspices of the UN in a variety of peacekeeping missions across the world. My concern is to ensure we continue to retain within the Defence Forces the maximum capability to meet the obligations imposed on the Defence Forces and that the Defence Forces continue to have the capacity to engage in complex peacekeeping missions such as the one currently taking place in southern Lebanon where I visited some ten days ago.

I have to ensure, within the limited financial resource that is available, that we apply our funding in a manner that is efficient. In terms of the barracks as I have said, I would very much take account of advice I receive from the military on the strategic benefits of the retention, or otherwise, of particular barracks and on how to maximise operational capacities. That advice is fed into the process that is being currently conducted under the review of expenditure and I regard that advice as of key importance.

I remind the Deputy in case he does not realise it that, in the context of barrack location, the original decisions made about barrack location and their strategic importance were not based on the needs of this State as an independent State and the obligations of the Defence Forces to serve the civil power and to engage in UN missions. The primary thought process that went into the location of barracks was by the British sometime between 1750 and 1850 when they strategically decided where to locate barracks in order to contain the rebellious Irish. We have moved on somewhat from that particular historical analysis of where barracks should be located.

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