Defence Forces
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-17
============================================================

Brendan Smith (FF), Cavan-Monaghan

I thank the Minister for her response. Deputy Timmins quite rightly referred to investment in cybersecurity. We all agree with that and we know the urgency of it.
In the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces of 2022, the preferred enlistment is 11,500 by 2028. That is the target that was outlined in that report. To cater for that enlistment that I sincerely hope will be reached and exceeded, additional accommodation is needed. The most modern barracks in Europe was Dún Uí Néill, Cavan, which, unfortunately, was closed in 2012. The buildings are still there intact. Quite a number of them are not being used for any particular purpose. I put forward to the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach, both of them in the Department of Defence, that that particular military installation should be utilised again by the State for defence purposes.
I do not expect the Minister to answer on this specifically this evening. There was a huge corporate knowledge acquired by members of the Defence Forces when they were based in Dún Uí Néill Barracks in Cavan right through the central Border area. As the Minister will be aware, the military barracks is Finner Camp in south Donegal and there is nothing in the central Border region until we go over to the east, to Aiken Barracks.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:38+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-17