Rónán Mullen (Independent)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit mar is tábhachtach an díospóireacht í seo.

This debate comes at a time when many families across Ireland are worried about the approaching budget and the additional charges and taxes it will undoubtedly bring to their lives. It is a cruel twist that we have the budget in the weeks before Christmas, a time when the burden of expectation weighs heavily on families across the country, extra bills and costs flood in and purse strings are stretched to the maximum.

For families of Defence Force staff this year there is an extra challenge. Not only do they have to adjust to the reductions in pay which all State employees have had to endure but they have the unwelcome uncertainty around whether they will have to relocate in the coming year. The prospect of renewed and further barrack closures must weigh heavily on them, in particular on people based in towns such as Mullingar, Cavan, Clonmel, Kilkenny and Castlebar.

In the decision that will be made it should be remembered that the families of serving personnel suffer the most significant disruption and impact on their lives when they are forced to relocate. They will have to sell houses which, in the collapsed market, will impose significant losses on many people. There will be difficulties in securing school places elsewhere. They will be leaving support networks of friends and relatives behind, as others have said.

Many of the people we are discussing in the abstract have laid down roots in the communities where their loved ones have been posted. They have made long-term decisions based on the future. They have made commitments which the decision to close a post will cancel. The families of our serving personnel should be kept to the fore in the Government's consideration of the issue.

A critical issue in the discussion we are having is balanced regional development. Some years ago a previous Administration introduced, with a fanfare of publicity and flurry of expectation, a report that was to set the course of future investment in services and infrastructure in Ireland. I refer to the national spatial strategy.

There is no shortage of expensive reports gathering dust on the shelves of the Oireachtas Library but the national spatial strategy is perhaps the most intriguing. It proposed to move from what had been a legacy of rather disjointed developments during the Celtic tiger years to charting new paths for balanced regional investment and infrastructure. Unfortunately, I understand the strategy has been killed off and is to be found in the Natural History Museum rather than the Oireachtas Library, stuffed and mounted in a glass case.

I raise the issue of the national spatial strategy in the context of this debate to illustrate a broader point about the critical importance of supporting large gateway towns that act as service and commercial hubs for hinterland regions. The decision to close Army barracks in the towns mentioned flies in the face of any commitment to balanced regional development. Mullingar is home to Columb barracks and traditionally the artillery corps of the Defence Forces. It is a thriving town with a population of over 18,000, historically a busy market centre, a key town in County Westmeath and for the region generally, and a gateway town earmarked for investment and infrastructural expansion. The barracks is the base for 200 troops and support staff and the income generated from pay, pensions and ancillary purchases is worth €10 million to the local economy. The nearest sizeable private sector employer was the US multinational financial services firm Capmark, which had a financial shared services centre employing 250 in Mullingar until it halved its staff in July 2008 as the recession took hold, with 50 staff taking voluntary redundancy. The final jobs left from the company in October 2010, with 50 local call centre jobs moving 35 miles up the N4 to Maynooth because suitable office space could not be found in Mullingar. We are left with a town that has been damaged by the recession and associated job losses.

There is little we can do to prevent a multinational from shutting up shop and axing jobs but the public sector and the Defence Forces are firmly within the Government's control. The closure of Mullingar barracks will not occasion the redundancy of the 200 personnel based there; they would be moved to another location. On that basis, why is the Government determined to contribute to the decline of towns like Mullingar, which have been singled out as the very towns we should support to attain balanced regional development? Apart from the immediate costs in transferring and redeploying people, can the Minister confirm where the spare capacity in other barracks is to be found?

In January 2008, the Defence Forces strategic planning office prepared a discussion paper on possible options for barrack closures. The paper followed the earlier conclusions of a working group established in 2004 to review the Department of Defence's existing property portfolio. A key rationale advanced for the closure of various military establishments, leaving aside the changed security situation on the Border, was the windfall that could be obtained from selling barracks that were invariably located in town centres and prime development sites. This rationale no longer stands considering the current property market. It is foolhardy indeed to contemplate closing military barracks as there is no market for these properties to be disposed of.

There is a danger these towns will be left with the physical legacy of a large, empty building that the taxpayer must pay to keep secure. The Government can act to stop the decline of these regional towns that have seen so many job losses as the small and medium business sector has contracted, by choosing to prioritise investment, not just from multinationals through the IDA, but using its own discretion to retain the Defence Forces.

The Government states in its self-congratulatory amendment that the plans to tackle the economic crisis are now bearing fruit. The fruit is still rather sour. In situations where we can control what we prioritise, balanced regional development must be maintained as a priority. The Minister has the power to shield areas from adverse economic impact through the retention of jobs and services where there is no sound economic case for their refusal. That is not even to mention the strong social impacts of closing barracks, the historical connections between towns and their barracks and the supports to youth, the elderly and volunteerism in the area in which the Defence Forces are so intimately involved. In Mullingar, the troops raised €30,000 for the stroke unit in the local hospital.

At family, community and economic and regional development level, there is a case for the Government to reconsider its approach.