The Department of Defence is spending £1,400 a day on private security to protect four barracks closed as part of the current rationalisation programme. The security firms will be retained "initially" for three months while the Department seeks buyers for the buildings.
A Department spokesman said last night it was cheaper to use private security firms than soldiers. "The whole idea is to make more troops available for operational duties," he said. It was also easier to arrange the sale when the military had been withdrawn.
The general secretary of PDFORRA, Mr John Lucey, said his members had not been consulted and did not particularly want to return to barracks they had vacated. "But it does seem a little bit ludicrous to close a post and then engage a private security firm to protect it," he said.
The Fine Gael frontbench spokeswoman on defence, Ms Frances Fitzgerald TD, said the revelation was "absolutely extraordinary, and symptomatic of the Minister's approach, which has shown a lack of planning and consultation. What are we doing bringing in private security firms to guard an Army barracks? I think it's extraordinary."
The cost of security for the barracks was revealed in a written reply by the Minister, Mr Smith, to a Dail question from Mr David Stanton (FG, Cork East). The barracks protected by private firms include Murphy Barracks, Ballincollig, and Fitzgerald Camp, Fermoy. The others are Devoy Barracks, Naas, Co Kildare, and the Military Barracks, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan.
But Mr Stanton said the arrangement showed how little thought had gone into the plans to sell military installations. He said that at Ballincollig there was a military guard because of an explosives store inside the complex, but overall security was provided by a private firm.