Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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223. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the short to medium term plans for the Gormanstown Army camp and its surrounding grounds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36527/16]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Gormanston Camp is, and will continue to be, an important operational military installation, and there are no plans to change this.

My Department has invested considerably in facilities and infrastructure at Gormanston Camp. Since 2010, just over €688,000 has been spent on a range of capital and non-capital developments and improvements. This is in addition to routine ongoing investment in repair and maintenance of the facility.

In addition, in implementing the White Paper on Defence 2015, a number of projects have been identified that will address infrastructure requirements across the Defence Forces. In this regard, a rolling five year infrastructure development plan will be produced based on an assessment of needs for all individual barracks. In addition, a review will be carried out of training facilities, which includes Gormanston Camp, in order to ensure that they are developed in accordance with the needs of the Defence Forces. At present, the Camp is also used for RDF training and is the only site in the Defence property portfolio that is used for Air Defence training and Air Corps firing.