Minister stands by eviction order

THE Defence Department last night said it stood by its decision to evict 54 householders living in army houses at the Curragh Camp.

A spokesman for Defence Minister Michael Smith stressed that they did not want to put any family out of the road. "But time is running out and these houses are needed for serving personnel who have their own accommodation problems and for whom the homes were originally built," he said.

The residents, known as 'overholders', are retired soldiers or families of former personnel. They reacted angrily to comments by the Minister who had referred to the need to 'lance a boil' in dealing with the problem.

But the Minister's spokesman said Mr Smith had merely used a figure of speech. "The Minister was talking about the overdue need to deal a situation, he was not referring to the people concerned," the spokesman said.

Callers to the RTE radio show presented by Joe Duffy also said they resented assertions by Mr Smith that many of the householders had considerable rent arrears and ESB bills effectively paid by the taxpayer. The callers said rents and ESB bills had in many cases been withheld at source from pensions and other payments.

Labour Party TD, Jack Wall, who represents the constituency in which the Curragh Camp is located, urged Mr Smith to begin negotiations with the families concerned. Mr Wall said there was little prospect of local authority housing for them in the Newbridge area or in County Kildare generally.

"Evicting these families would be unthinkable. The Minister must withdraw the eviction orders and instruct his Department to enter into immediate negotiations with the families concerned," Deputy Wall said.

But the Minister's spokesman rejected Deputy Wall's statement that the Government action had angered serving soldiers. "In fact the Department of Defence have had many calls from serving soldiers saying the opposite. These callers said the situation was left go on far too long," the spokesman said.

The spokesman said 11 of the 54 householders had the option of buying at a preferential price but the other 43 houses were located within the army camp and could not be sold.