Irish minister resigns over barracks closure

A senior member of the Irish government has resigned over cost cutting measures that will lead to the closure of a military barracks in his constituency.

Willie Penrose, minister of state for housing, resigned on Tuesday just three weeks before the government announces a further €3.8bn in austerity measures that will test the stability of the Fine Gael/Labour coalition government.

“I had made clear my unstinting opposition to proposals to close Columb Barracks in Mullingar, so arising from a decision that was made at cabinet today, I had no alternative but to take this course of action,” said Mr Penrose, who is a member of the Labour party, the junior coalition partner.

Mr Penrose was a so-called “super junior minister” in government, which meant he had a seat at the cabinet table.

Ireland was forced to accept a €67.5bn bail-out from the European Union and International Monetary Fund last autumn after a property crash and banking crisis. The terms call for Dublin to cut its budget deficit to 8.6 per cent of gross domestic product in 2012 and below 3 per cent by 2015. Some €20bn of austerity measures have been imposed over the past three years, and the government recently announced plans for an additional €12.4 bn over the following four years.

Political commentators said the resignation of Mr Penrose was a blow to the Fine Gael/Labour coalition government, but would probably not threaten stability in the short term.

“It is certainly a blow. But it is less damaging to the party and government because the resignation relates to a local issue rather than a national issue linked to cutbacks for people on low incomes,” said John Doyle, head of the school of law and government at Dublin City University.

Politicians’ links with their constituencies in Ireland tend to be strong owing to the relatively small size of constituencies and the proportional representation voting system which makes it politically difficult to introduce cuts to local services.

In July, a member of the Fine Gael party, Denis Naughten, was expelled from the party for voting against a proposal to downgrade services at a hospital in his constituency.

The Department of Defence has said the closure of the Mullingar barracks should save €570,000, “including utilities, maintenance and security duty”. Three other military barracks will also close as part of the cost saving plans.

Enda Kenny, Ireland’s prime minister, said the barracks will be sold and the proceeds help to fund the upgrading of defence equipment and infrastructure. He said reforms are essential because the Irish state is spending €18bn per year more than it is taking in.