Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

Is there not? I do not know, but I will take the Minister's word on that. I am thinking in particular of the Curragh Camp in the context of the housing crisis in the State, as well as the medical crisis. There are accommodation units and a hospital available there which are idle.

With a small amount of investment, they could be returned to being habitable dwellings for Defence Forces personnel who, as we know, are among the lowest paid public sector workers. We know that a number of families are living in some of those homes now under fear of eviction but we also know that many soldiers, without adequate accommodation, sleep in their cars. Deputy Wallace and I visited the Curragh Camp on a number of occasions. Deputy Wallace, with his builder's hat, was able to look at the state of some of those buildings. They are in considerable shape and they do not require an enormous amount of investment to make them usable. Unless the State looks at this and at making them available, we are involved in a sort of State-sponsored vandalism by allowing them to remain derelict because there are important uses to which they could be put rather than letting them diminish and die.

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