Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy will know that the housing challenges faced by Kildare County Council can hardly be put on me. We have tried to be as helpful as we can in respect of people who are still in properties they should legally have vacated a long time ago in most cases. They knew that when they joined the Defence Forces. They knew the rules. We are not putting anybody out of houses and onto the streets, so let us not allow that impression to get out. We have said that we will look at each case individually. If people are in a vulnerable position we will take that into account, as we have been doing. We will talk to Kildare County Council to try to prioritise housing if people want to go on the housing list. However, we cannot maintain a position whereby, because it is expensive or difficult to find a house, non-members of the Defence Forces can stay indefinitely in a barracks. Even for security reasons, there are issues with that. We will try to be as accommodating and helpful as we can, but we must recognise that the Department of Defence is not a housing organisation.

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