PDFORRA warns Minister on barracks closures

The Minister for Defence will "dig a hole" for his Government colleagues if he secures Cabinet approval for barracks closures this week, the organisation representing rank and file members of the Defence Forces has warned.

PDFORRA accused Mr Smith of using the cover of public anger over Army deafness litigation to push through closures which it said had been a "a non-runner" until now.

But the association's general secretary, Mr John Lucey, warned it would be "confrontational in the extreme . . . if the Minister goes down the road of getting a Cabinet decision in principle to close Army posts without consulting PDFORRA and the communities involved".

The subject of barracks closures is expected to be raised at Wednesday's Cabinet meeting. However, the Minister last night refused to comment on weekend newspaper reports that he would be presenting colleagues with a list of posts proposed for closure.

Mr Lucey said closures had been under consideration since they were proposed in a Price Waterhouse report in 1995. The organisation representing commissioned officers, RACO, had subsequently identified the posts most at risk and Mr Lucey said there was "no reason to question" the RACO list.

It included the apprentice school at Devoy Barracks in Naas, Co Kildare, Magee Barracks in Kildare town and the cavalry and artillery facilities in Cork, at Fermoy and Ballincollig respectively. Other posts deemed at risk included those at Castleblayney, Co Monaghan and Letterkenny, Co Donegal.

Mr Lucey said the Army barracks had always been "economic multipliers" for the towns in which they were based and "up to now, closing them has simply been a non-runner". But he claimed the Minister was trying to use the bad press attracted by the deafness litigation as cover for a move to sell them. He said Mr Smith had already linked the revenue from possible sales to the bill for deafness compensation.

"But if he proceeds the way he seems to be going, he is simply digging a hole for his Cabinet colleagues. There'll be placards outside every barracks and there'll be people queuing up to complain in constituency clinics. Whatever chance he has of doing this with proper consultation, he'll have no chance without it."