There has been considerable shock in the Northwest at the extent of the hit which Donegal has taken in the Army rationalisation cuts announced in the budget. RTÉ reports that over 250 personnel will be transferred from the Rockhill and Lifford bases to Finner camp south of Ballyshannon. By any measure this is a hard hit for the north east of the county and Donegal is the only county where two bases are to close. Nobody would argue that the Northwest should be above cuts if other bases close, but to take two closures when the Celtic tiger has bypassed many up here is a lot.
There has been much opposition to the decision, including by the Mayor Cllr Gerry Crawford in Lifford and Letterkenny Cllr blogger Damien Blake. But questions will surely be asked about the lobbying strength of the Letterkenny area in particular when its resident TD, James McDaid, didn’t even turn up for the Dail votes on the bank rescue package or the budget. At a time like this you’d think that goodwill is a valuable currency and McDaid in particular doesn’t seem to have much where Cowen is concerned.
Cllr Blake makes sound arguments about the central role of soldiers and their families as part of the local community. On the other hand, soldiers on other blogs have argued that they are in an Army and should just go where ordered. But there is an argument that a New Year closure is premature – especially as Joe McHugh TD has pointed out, when dissidents are more active in the Northwest.
In an era of carbon footprints it might have been fairer at least to give people 2 or 3 years time to move house if they wanted. There will be a lot of cars up and down that road in January!
