A CROWD of about 1,000 people protested in Mullingar at the weekend over fears the Army’s Columb Barracks may be closed.
Clodagh Graham, whose husband is in Lebanon on his sixth tour of duty, said the presence in the midlands of 200 soldiers, 120 reservists and their families contributed €8 million to the local economy.
Army families, many on the family income supplement, could not bear the cost of increased travel expenses nor of moving children out of schools and creches and would be unable to sell their homes to move, she said.
Minister of State for Housing Willie Penrose said Mullingar’s 200-year military history could not be sacrificed for a proposal “which does not stand up to scrutiny”.
“Decisions should be based on evidence, on rationality and as to whether they make economic sense for the whole of society, not for just one department or organ of State,” he said.
A decision to close the barracks would not meet any of those criteria, while developing a barracks to receive the soldiers would cost “a blue fortune”.
He proposed developing the barracks, which has advanced communications structures, to support a training centre for the Reserve Defence Forces, Civil Defence or Red Cross.
Minister for Defence Alan Shatter said yesterday that no final decision had been taken on the future of Army barracks, adding the issue was “terribly important”.
“If I have a choice between retaining buildings that the chief of staff and those in the operations office of the Defence Forces advise me have no strategic importance or retaining numbers, I want to retain numbers,” he told RTÉ.
“No decision has been made in this particular context, but it will be an issue that will have to be addressed in the context of the overall review of the expenditure,” he said.