Department to press ahead with sale of listed site

THE Department of Defence said it will proceed with the sale of Columb Barracks in Mullingar next March despite claims it cannot be sold because it’s a listed building.

Longford-Westmeath TD, Willie Penrose, resigned from the Cabinet and the Labour Party, claiming the 200-year-old building was unsaleable and there would be “no identifiable savings” from closing the 26 acre barracks and moving 170 soldiers to Athlone.

But a spokesperson for the Department said there was nothing to prevent the sale of listed buildings and it was the intention to go ahead with the sale after it is vacated in March 2012.

The Department said the closure of four barracks in Mullingar, Cavan, Clonmel and Castlebar would lead to savings of €5 million a year — €1.3m from utilities and maintenance of the barracks and €3.7m from round the clock security. But it could not say how much of this would be cancelled out by paying relocation allowances to 525 army personnel.

A spokesperson said the allowances have yet to be negotiated with unions. A leaked Defence Forces document stated the total cost would be €8.5m. The Department would not comment on the figure.

Some 170 soldiers from Mullingar and 130 in Cavan will move to Athlone, while 200 soldiers in Clonmel will move to Limerick, 15 in Castlebar will also be relocated.

A spokesperson said there were not estimates of how much this would cost, but the total cost arising from the closures of Letterkenny, Lifford, Longford and Monaghan amounted to about €3m.