Penrose at odds with Kenny over cost savings
Announcing his resignation from the Cabinet yesterday, Mr Penrose accused the Taoiseach of relying on the word of Defence Minister Alan Shatter and not figures provided in the comprehensive spending review which will form the basis for next month’s budget.
Following yesterday’s Cabinet meeting in which it was agreed to close four barracks, in Cavan, Clonmel, Castlebar and Mullingar, Enda Kenny told the Dáil: “The savings involved here would be of the order of €5 million with efficiencies of about €1.3m per year.”
But Mr Penrose, a trained barrister, strongly disputed these figures.
“The comprehensive spending review didn’t indicate that. That’s what Minister Shatter said. I’ve a totally different view in that context and I think I’m on reasonably solid ground.”
He said he was not afraid to make difficult budgetary decisions and if savings were possible he would have accepted it. “But I don’t believe that is the position.”
The Longford-Westmeath TD said the barracks was “part and parcel of my DNA” and that he was “sad” to have to resign from the position of minister with responsibility for housing.
As well as resigning from the Cabinet he will resign from the Labour Party, reducing the Government’s majority to 53.
But he said his departure would not destabilise the Government because he was “only” a junior minister with responsibility for housing “who sits on Cabinet”.
Speaking to the media outside the Dáil, Mr Penrose said he had a “bit of an economic background” and had evaluated the situation over the past three months and found “there no identifiable savings in my view” from closing the barracks.
In his resignation statement issued at lunchtime he said: “I fully appreciate that difficult decisions have to be made by the Government if we are to get out of the economic mess in which we have found ourselves.
“But I was not prepared to stand over a decision that was not backed up by the facts and figures.”
Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy called on the Government to release the information backing its figures.
The only opposition TD in the Longford-Westmeath constituency up until yesterday, Mr Troy said the €2.84m figure was “incredible” and “must be explained by Government”.
He said the decision was “a stunning and shameful example of the cynical election promises made by Fine Gael and Labour to the people in the Midlands”.
Fine Gael TD Nicky McFadden said her “heart goes out to the families affected by this decision”.
But she said: “We are in difficult times which require rationalisation measures in many areas, including the Defence Forces.”
Former defence minister and Fianna Fáil TD for Limerick, Willie O’Dea, said it was another broken election pledge.
“Eamon Gilmore, the then leader of Labour Party, went to Mullingar shortly before the last general election and gave a faithful commitment that Mullingar barracks would not be closed. Obviously, Willie Penrose wasn’t prepared to stand over an obvious breach of faith like that.”
