Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The mind boggles with the thought that the Department is paying €34,000 per annum for security costs while paying €25,000 per annum for the Reserve Defence Force to train a couple of hundred metres down the road. That is mind-boggling and the Minister of State should be ashamed to say it on the floor of this House. The Reserve Defence Force wanted to continue to use the facility and would have been more than capable of maintaining it.

Nothing has happened because the previous Government gave a commitment that it would stay in community use. It entered negotiations with the GAA but reneged on those, and that is why we are now in the position we are in. I agree that something has to be done but I ask that the Minister put a timeline in place so that the community groups have six months to carry out feasibility studies.

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