Vol. 466 No. 2
27 Mr. M. Brennan asked the Minister for Defence if his attention has been drawn to the fact that 22 civilian men are being made redundant from Finner Camp, Bundoran, County Donegal due to the fact that their work is being privatised; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9550/96]
The civilian employees referred to in the question provide maintenance and services at Finner Camp. No civilian employee staff at the camp have been let go in the recent past and there are no arrangements in preparation to make any staff there redundant in the future.
It is possible that the Deputy's concern about civilian employee positions based at Finner Camp may relate to some speculation about the impact of the Defence Forces review implementation plan — phase I — copies of which issued to all Dáil Deputies. In that connection I repeat my recent reply to a related similar written question from other Deputies where I pointed out that the review plan sets out under a heading of "Building Maintenance and Furnishing" in Chapter 6 — Logistics and Material — that:
The maintenance of military installation buildings will continue to be undertaken by existing civilian employee maintenance staffs for the Barrack commander. Supervision will be provided by engineers from the Logistics Battalion. The evaluation of alternative means of maintaining barracks will be examined during Phase I."
Of relevance also in the "Civilianisation" section of Chapter 8 — Special Studies — of the implementation plan which includes the statement that:
There is a need for a detailed study to examine the role and disposition of all civilian personnel under the new arrangements. This will be carried out during the phase one plan and will be undertaken in conjunction with a study to identify areas where tasks undertaken by military personnel under the new arrangements might be civilianised or contracted out.
