Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy seems to have lost sight of the fact the Curragh Camp is a military one. She seems to want to create another version of a new city or a new town in the Curragh. As I said to Deputy Wallace yesterday in another context, I would be interested in him sharing with me what it is that is good that the Garda does. I would be interested in Deputy Daly sharing with us one day what it is that is good that the Defence Forces do because it seems her only approach to defence matters is to raise a number of issues that are not directly connected to defence and the functions our military perform at home and abroad but are issues in which the Deputy has a personal interest, which she is entitled to have, and are designed always to suggest that the Defence Forces or my Department lack insight into what we are doing.

Our primary role in the Department of Defence is to ensure the Defence Forces receive the training and have available to them the resources to which they are entitled, that our barracks are fit for purpose in the 21st century and that improvements are made which benefit the functions and capabilities of our Defence Forces.

As I said previously, there is an ongoing building programme to modernise and enhance the training and operational facilities available to the members of the Defence Forces. I do not have an open pot of money I can spend on other matters. The funding does not exist. The Deputy may have noticed the State has had certain fiscal difficulties. I know that she and her colleagues believe there is an open pot of money to throw like confetti at a wedding at every project of which they think without ever having to raise any taxes in order to meet that expenditure.

The Curragh Camp, effectively, is an operational military installation and, as such, the priorities on development of facilities to enhance the operational capability of the Defence Forces where facilities are needed, existing buildings are assessed and if cost effective they are restored to meet the need. I make no apology for developing facilities to enhance the operational capabilities of the Defence Forces because that is what is required and that must be the primary objective.

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