Inishowen TD., Deputy Charlie McConalogue has called
on the Minister for Defence Alan Shatter to
reconsider his plans to close the Reserve Defence
Forces office in Carndonagh.
He said shutting the facility down will have a
"detrimental impact on the area and on local
volunteer numbers".
"The Defence Minister Alan Shatter has decided to
close our local reserve office as part of a
so-called ‘value for money’ review. I believe this
decision is extremely short-sighted and fails to
take into account the significant return to the
community and to the State from the Inishowen RDF
unit,” said Deputy McConalogue.
“This unit currently has 90 local members and is
greatly supported by having a local base. The
facility has been in our community since the 1930s
and during that time, it has offered hundreds of
local young people the chance to represent their
State and volunteer safely.
Inishowen RDF unit is being merged with Letterkenny
RDF. But Deputy McConalogue said the merger would
result in local volunteers having to travel long
distances each time they get together.
"In my view this will certainly result in a fall off
in local volunteer numbers and Minister Shatter has
completely failed to recognise this," he said,
adding that he was urging Mr Shatter to reconsider
his decision. |
