Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 380: To ask the Minister for Defence if he will provide a list of all the assets worth more than €100,000 that his Department has sold since 1997; the total value of all these assets; the purposes for which the proceeds from the sale of same were used; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16310/05]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Government, on 15 July 1998, approved a programme of evacuation and sale of six barracks considered surplus to military requirements. The barracks in question were located at Ballincollig, Fermoy, Castleblayney, Naas, Kildare and Clancy Barracks, Dublin.

The sale of 97 acres approximately at Murphy Barracks, Ballincollig, was completed in 2003 for a total of €42 million. The bulk of the lands were purchased by O'Flynn Construction. The sale of a site comprising circa 2.7 acres to the then Southern Heath Board for €1.73 million was completed in December last. It was agreed at the time that an area comprising approximately 27 acres at Murphy Barracks would be transferred to Cork County Council for community use and title to this area is being transferred to the council. Agreement has also been reached for the sale of a site, circa 1.7 acres, to the Department of Education and Science for approximately €1.1 million. A half acre site has been set aside on foot of a request from the Office of Public Works for a plot to facilitate extension of the existing Garda station located on Main Street, Ballincollig.

A total of 19.218 acres at the former Fitzgerald Camp, Fermoy, were sold to Cork County Council in 2001 for €973,889 for development in conjunction with the IDA. Castleblayney military post, County Monaghan, comprising circa ten acres, was sold to the North Eastern Health Board for €761,843 in 2002. Seven acres at Devoy Barracks, Naas, County Kildare, were ceded free of charge to Naas Urban District Council, while a further 14 acres were sold to that authority for €8,888,167. The balance of the barracks lands — one acre — was sold to Kildare County Council for €380,921 in 2002. Clancy Barracks, Dublin, comprising 13.65 acres approximately, was sold to Florence Properties Limited for €25.4 million in 2004.

With regard to the remaining barracks viz. Magee Barracks, Kildare, the Government decided in July 2003 that this property would be among the State lands released for inclusion in the Sustaining Progress affordable housing initiative. The modalities of the transfer of this property, as well as lands at Gormanston, County Meath, St. Bricin's Hospital, Dublin, and Collins Barracks, Cork, to the relevant local authorities are under consideration in consultation with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Chief State Solicitor's office.

Details of additional military properties, each in excess of €100,000, which were surplus to requirements and which were disposed of since 1997 are as follows: 6.39 acres, known as Susan's Field, adjoining Collins Barracks, Cork, was sold to Cork City Council for €1.523 million in 2002; circa 3.4 acres at Sarsfield Barracks, Limerick, was disposed of to Limerick City Council for €1.162 million in 2002-03; a site comprising circa 0.931 acres, adjacent to my Department's RDF premises in Kanturk, County Cork, was disposed of to the then Southern Health Board for a consideration of €178,000 in 2003; approximately 1.559 acres at Waterford Barracks was sold to Waterford City Council for €662,000 in 2003; the sale by public tender of Belmont Huts, Cobh, County Cork, comprising circa 2.89 acres, to a Wexford-based partnership for €2.4 million, was completed during 2004; and Custume House, Athlone, was sold to the Organisation of National Ex-Servicemen and Women Teoranta for €254,000 in 2005. Total receipts in these transactions amounted to €86.3 million.

The Government decided in February 2000, in the context of the White Paper on Defence, that 100% of the proceeds from sales of surplus military properties would be reinvested in equipment and infrastructure for the Defence Forces.