Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that €3.5 million was spent on the Curragh Camp. It was spent wisely and well. However, that does not take away from the appalling conditions in which many of our men and women serve. As the centre of the Defence Forces, the Curragh Camp merits more investment. The situation is all the more galling given that the Department of Defence handed back €23 million last year. It would have been far wiser to have spent that money on renovations.

At the meeting of the committee on 28 November, I made the point that the insufficient defence budget may be due to the lack of a full Minister for Defence at the Cabinet table. The Minister of State may have taken offence at my remarks, but no offence was intended. I maintain that it may be the reason for the underfunding. As a representative of Kildare South, in which the Curragh is located, I extend an invitation to the Minister of State and the Taoiseach, who has ultimate responsibility for defence and the defence budget, to visit the Curragh Camp as early as possible in January.

My colleague, Deputy Jack Chambers, has sought a full commission report into the future of the Defence Forces. That is absolutely vital. It has never been needed more than now both in order to address the issues of retention and recruitment which he raised, as well as the physical environment in which members serve. They are suffering and we must support them.

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