Army to rent sites in towns with shut barracks

The Department of Defence is to rent military training facilities in towns where it is controversially closing army barracks, in a move described as “baffling”.

Defence Minister Alan Shatter’s confirmed his department had taken out an advert in a local Cavan paper seeking rental premises to train members of the Reserve Defence Force (RDF), three months after confirming the barracks in the county was to close.

His department is also seeking to rent premises in three other towns where it is closing barracks: Clonmel, Castlebar and Mullingar. The barracks in Castlebar was originally used as a training camp for RDF personnel. The department declined to comment on how much the rentals will cost.

All four barracks are to close by the end of March, in a move the department says will save €5m. These will bring to 14 the number of barracks closed since 1998. It is unclear how many have been sold.

Former Labour Party junior minister Willie Penrose, who resigned from the Cabinet over the decision to close the army barracks in Mullingar, said the decision to rent premises was “top of the head economics”.

“I don’t want to say I told you so, but my decision to stand down in November wasn’t a precipitous decision. If someone had told me these closures would save €500,000 or even €1m I wouldn’t have liked it but I would have accepted it. I’m not surprised by the decision and it’s going to cost a significant amount of money to accommodate the reserve units.”

Fianna Fáil defence spokesman Dara Calleary said it was “baffling” the department was looking to rent premises in towns where it already owned purpose-built facilities.

“One the one hand, Minister Shatter has moved to close the barracks in Cavan, Mullingar, Clonmel and Castlebar, while on the other, he is searching for another army property in the same towns. People are struggling to see the logic in this,” he said.

Mr Calleary said Cavan barracks was one of the most modern in Europe and is already purpose built to provide for the training needs of the RDF.

“Similarly, the barracks in Mullingar, Clonmel and Castlebar have been used by the army for decades and already have all the facilities needed for training.”

Cavan-based Sinn Féin senator Kathryn Reilly also criticised the decision as “complete madness”.

“The people of Cavan have been told that the barracks is being closed to make savings, but there is no economic gain from closing barracks like in Cavan. This is especially the case when the department wants to rent a premises in Cavan to train the RDF. Why sell a state-of-the-art facility to rent another space?”

In a statement, Mr Shatter said it was not economical to keep a full barracks open to cater for a reserve unit, and that it had 10 permanent and 30 part-time rentals across the country for RDF training.

“In order to fulfil the requirement to accommodate the reserve units following the closures, my department has placed advertisements in local newspapers in Cavan, Clonmel, Mullingar and Castlebar seeking to put in place suitable accommodation as soon as possible. This is consistent with how the department handled barrack closures in the past, which has proved very successful.”