Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all those projects. I visited several barracks recently, not just to the Curragh Camp, to which this question specifically relates, and seen the dilapidated state they are in. There is a need for a blueprint for the refurbishment and construction of facilities. I welcome the fact that, after 11 and a half years in the job and as this Government nears the end of its term of office, the Minister of State is finally putting together a five-year plan.

Members of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence visited the Curragh Camp recently and we saw for ourselves the dilapidated conditions there. We saw the sewage stains that had run down the walls of some of the shower blocks and toilets in quarters in which raw recruits are supposed to live. I accept that part of joining the Army or the Defence Forces is to be toughened up but I would not expect anybody to have to live in the conditions I saw. I also accept hat there have been improvements in some blocks but the conditions in others are a complete disgrace in this day and age. It is not just the living quarters, the Cadet School operates out of prefabs. The military hospital is not fit for purpose in any shape or form. The supposed elite unit, the Army Ranger Wing, is operating out of old stables with no running water. That is a living disgrace in this day and age. More than 100 buildings on the site need to be demolished. While the Army might have the explosives required to demolish them, there is no point demolishing old buildings unless there are replacements. When will a plan and funding be put in place to address dilapidation at the Curragh Camp?

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