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.