Closing barracks ‘would take €8m out of economies’

CLOSING an army barracks will save the state at most €200,000 — but will deprive local economies of up to €8 million, according to the association representing soldiers, sailors and aircrew.

PDFORRA said the savings to the state did not include the millions it would have to spend on building works at the barracks the soldiers would move into.

General secretary Gerry Rooney told the association’s annual conference in Athlone that proposals to close Columb Barracks in Mullingar, Kickham Barracks in Clonmel and Cavan Military Post were causing enormous distress for members and their families.

“The proposals to close further barracks make no economic sense and will produce little in the way of savings for the state,” said Mr Rooney.

“The savings from the closure of one barracks will not exceed €200,000.

“Indeed, the savings will be less in some cases and when the cost of building works at the new location are included there will be an overall financial loss to the state. It is expected building costs will run to millions of euro.”

Addressing Paul Kehoe, the junior defence minister, who attended the conference, Mr Rooney said: “The move to close barracks is based on the original PriceWaterhouse Report from the early 1990s, which contended that there were too many barracks.

“Given that the number of barracks has now been reduced to only 16 from nearly 30, the PriceWaterhouse observations are outdated and should be reconsidered.

“Alternative savings can be realised if travel costs incurred by journeys between army headquarters’ three different locations are rationalised and other activities, such as unscheduled exercises, are discontinued.”

He said the association opposed barrack closures and that shutting them down would mean that between €5m and €8m would be lost to local economies through pay and other expenditure.

Timmy Murphy, a former official with PDFORRA, addressed the conference on behalf of the families of soldiers in Cavan.

He said it was the only purpose-built barracks and if closed it would leave a “big black hole” in the middle of the border in terms of defences. He said dissident republicans or loyalists were still “hell bent” on destroying peace.

He said it cost between €225,000 and €250,000 to run the barracks but claimed it would cost up to €475,000 on private security to protect it.

Mr Murphy said there were 22 soldiers from Cavan serving in the Lebanon who did not know if the barracks would be there when they finished their tour.

Mr Kehoe declined to comment on barrack closures but said Defence Minister Alan Shatter was committed to maintaining both the “capabilities and operational capacity” of the Defence Forces.