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

The Deputy can repetitively raise the issue but, unfortunately, the position will not change. I will not comment on the expertise of Deputy Wallace in the building trade and what occurred with regard to outcomes in the manner in which he managed his construction company, because that is nothing to do with the matter. I have to rely on the advice and expertise of officials in the Department. As I said to the Deputy and to Deputy Wallace, who raised the same issue as to whether vacant properties have any possibility of future usage or could be renovated, this is a matter that is under consideration. We have engaged in conversations with Kildare County Council on the possibility of some joint housing scheme involving the Department of Defence and Kildare County Council with the council eventually taking over such a scheme. No funding has been identified for such a scheme and the likelihood of this being achieved is extremely uncertain due to a range of issues, including the security of Curragh Camp. Families and extended families cannot be permitted to reside in this location in circumstances in which they have ceased to have an engagement with the Defence Forces to the extent that no member of the family is a member of the Defence Forces. There are rules and regulations applicable to this, but I reiterate my central point that had there not been consideration for the real human circumstances of individual families, and had either myself or my predecessors taken the type of approach that the Deputy is describing, many of these families would have been evicted years ago by way of court order.

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