Town anger over Army barracks development

The controversy of the closure of Army barracks has erupted again with a claim that the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, failed to honour a promise of £1 million to the people of Castleblayney, Co Monaghan. The charge has been made by the chairman of the town's Urban District Council, Mr Jackie Crowe.

The town was promised £1 million as compensation for the closure of the local Army barracks. As well as those at Castleblayney, five barracks were closed at Cork, Kildare and Dublin in July.

The barracks, which the UDC had hoped to purchase with half the £1 million compensation, are to be transferred to the North Eastern Health Board and used as part of a high support child care residential unit.

The Department of Defence said the £1 million would be invested in developing the barracks as a special care unit jointly run by the North-Western, Western, North-Eastern and Midlands Health Boards.

Mr Crowe said: "There is absolutely bitter disappointment in the town. The Castleblayney Development Association had put forward a detailed and comprehensive development plan for the barracks, and we were given to understand by the Minister that we were in with a very good chance of getting it.

"The development association's plan would have provided a community centre, training facilities, sports facilities and about 30 jobs. Now we aren't going to get anything, except a facility for troubled young people, which a lot of people in the town are very apprehensive about anyway."

The UDC voted unanimously in April to buy the barracks and develop it in accordance with the development association's plan.

In a statement, the Department of Defence said the unit would include a gym, all-weather pitch and a swimming pool which would be available to the local community. The unit would provide 45 permanent jobs and Mr Smith was "anxious that plans prepared by the local council and the local development association should also go ahead in the town", the statement said.

However, Mr Noel McGuigan, chairman of the Castleblayney Development Association, said the community would have limited access to the facilities. He said the majority of jobs would be specialised and were likely to go to people living outside the town.

Without the £1 million promised by Mr Smith, Mr McGuigan said he "could not see how our plans can go ahead".