Sixty per cent of the proceeds from the sale of six military barracks will be reinvested in other Defence Force installations and equipment; a further 25 per cent will go towards Army deafness claims.
The remaining 15 per cent will be spent on community projects in the areas which military personnel will vacate under the plan. The sale of the six sites, which total 264 acres, should yield an estimated £50 million.
Following Government approval to proceed with the closure and sale of "surplus military barracks", the Army's chief-of-staff, Lieut-Gen Gerry McMahon, yesterday told a press conference he was delighted with the decision.
There was "no way" the Army could hope to reorganise itself and maintain its 34 barracks. He said he never thought he would see the day when these installations would be sold but believed the closures would improve the position of the Defence Forces.
The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, confirmed the barracks to be sold were: Murphy Barracks, Ballincollig, Co Cork; Fitzgerald Camp, Fermoy, Co Cork; Devoy Barracks, Naas, Co Kildare; Magee Barracks, Kildare town; Castleblayney Military Post, Co Monaghan; and Clancy Barracks, Islandbridge, Dublin.
It is proposed that personnel from Ballincollig will move to Collins Barracks, Cork; those in Fermoy will move to Kilworth Camp and Collins Barracks, Cork; those in Devoy Barracks, Naas and Magee Barracks, Kildare town, will go to the Curragh Camp; personnel at Castleblayney will move to Aiken Barracks, Dundalk and to Monaghan. With the exception of Clancy Barracks, the 900 personnel stationed at the installations will begin the move immediately and it should be completed by the end of September. The relocation of the units at Clancy Barracks, the most valuable of the sites, to other Dublin barracks and the Curragh will not begin this year.
Personnel will be transferred to "adjacent" military locations and civilian employees will be offered alternative employment. Although some "interim problems" would arise, Mr Smith said he needed money from the sale of the installations before he could refurbish and re-equip.
He confirmed he had discussed the matter with the two Army representative bodies - PDFORRA and RACO - after yesterday's Cabinet meeting and said both groups believed there should have been more consultation.
But he had the full support of the military authorities and the Cabinet and "I take whatever other heat is attached to this", he added.
"With this Government decision, we are finally grasping a nettle that has been ignored for too long. For many years, it has been obvious that the Defence Forces desperately needed to dispose of barracks. In truth, there can be no reform without hard decisions," the Minister said.
Though the manpower of the Defence Forces had fallen from a peak of 14,500 in 1981 to 11,500 today, there had been no corresponding reduction in occupied posts.
But Mr Smith was strongly criticised by Fine Gael and Labour for his handling of the proposed closures. Fine Gael's defence spokeswoman, Ms Frances Fitzgerald, said the Minister's "inept handling" of the affair was another blow to Defence Forces morale.
Labour's defence spokesman, Mr Jack Wall, said the closures would devastate the relevant local economies. Any plan would have to ensure provisions were put in place to encourage alternative industries to compensate.