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.