Majority of Defence Forces accommodation in Cork deemed to be unusable

Almost 85% of the Defence Forces’ residential units in Cork are “uninhabitable”, the Tánaiste has revealed.

Nationally, there are 153 residential units under the control of the Department of Defence. There are 71 currently occupied, while three are vacant and require refurbishment, and 79 are currently uninhabitable.

In Cork, there are just two habitable buildings and 11, or 84.6%, are uninhabitable.

Cork South Central TD and Sinn Féin spokesperson for foreign affairs, trade, and defence Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said that the level of uninhabitable buildings was far too high.

Shocking

“It is shocking that the last few governments have allowed so much accommodation for the Defence Forces to fall into such disrepair that some of them are uninhabitable,” he told The Echo.

“The Government are more interested in how they are seen to talk about defence, rather than actually looking after the buildings of the Defence Forces, and more importantly, the men and women of the Defence Forces.

“Clearly, there is a need for investment, but instead of getting rid of the triple-lock neutrality protection it would be more in the Government’s line to ensure our Defence Forces have enough accommodation for their personnel.”

The figures were revealed in response to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil TD Seán Ó Fearghaíl.

In his response, Tánaiste and Defence Minister Simon Harris added that the Defence Forces commissioned consultants to assess the condition of the Defence Forces’ vacant housing stock and its suitability for conversion or refurbishment to provide for additional single living-in accommodation for personnel.

Report

“A report has recently been submitted to my department for its assessment,” he said.

“Once my officials and the Defence Forces have considered the contents, they will submit recommendations to me on the remediation programme to be undertaken.”

It comes as €11,961,598.74 has been spent on renovations to Collins Barracks in the last two years, according to figures given to Cork Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide last week.

This includes €913,029.23 for office renovations in 2023, as well as €5,018,985.84 spent on a new accommodation block; €272,127.60 on a new engineer specialist search-and-clearance storage facility; and €332,214.50 on a new diving storage facility in 2024, with work complete on all of these projects.

Still ongoing is €477,059.80 worth of work on upgrading washrooms from last year and €4,948,181.77 for the refurbishment of an accommodation block this year.