Delegation meets department on Nenagh's Military Barracks
A key meeting on the future of Nenagh’s Military Barracks took place earlier this week with the Department of Defence, Labour Party TD, Alan Kelly has revealed.
Deputy Kelly said he arranged the meeting following a request from Nenagh Municipal Authority.
Among those who met department officials with the Labour Party TD on Tuesday of this week were a number of councillors in the Nenagh Municipal District.
Deputy Kelly said the site has been decaying for years and is now in an awful state. “This is so sad to see considering the history of the barracks. The current situation is not sustainable,” he said.
The local delegation are hoping that a way forward can be found for the derelict site involving putting a plan together for the future of the rundown area that has been the source of much criticims over decades.
Before going into the meeting, Deputy Kelly said there were a number of issues that need clarification prior to any plan being put in place.
“Firstly, there needs to be a full title search to find out who exactly owns what on the site. Secondly, the site is dangerous, so there needs to be a maintenance plan in the short to medium term.
“Thirdly, there needs to be a dilapidation survey carried out on all the buildings on the site which are owned by the Department of Defence.”
Deputy Kelly said that, ultimately, the Department of Defence, working with Nenagh Municipal Authority, needs to look at the options for the site and how they will be funded.
“Put simply, either the site can be salvaged or it can’t,” he said.
“If it can be salvaged then the question had to be asked: are the Department of Defence willing to fund such work, and for what purpose?”
If the buildings are not salvageable, and/or the department is not willing to fund such works, then can it be used for other uses, in particular housing, asked Deputy Kelly.
He added: “If the latter is the option chosen, how can the site transfer to Tipperary County Council; will the Department of Defence/Government fund this transfer and will the Department of Housing support the preparatory works to prepare the site for such housing?
“These costs would all be substantial and couldn’t be absorbed by Tipperary County Council. There may even be an avenue to EU funding.”
What is certain, said Deputy Kelly, is that the site can’t stay the way it is. “It is not acceptable and this issue has to be dealt with one way or another. I want this meeting to create a pathway for doing so.”
MORRIS' SUGGESTIONS
Cllr Séamie Morris said that if the department was going to transfer the site to the council then it should remediate it, or provide Tipperary County Council with the funds to do so.
He said the department should fund the clean-up of the site and a maintenance programme, adding that neighbouring housing estates are subject to overgrowth and rodent infestations due to the dereliction.
He suggested that the Land Development Agency may be able to use the site for a mix of housing, including as a retirement village, and possibly parking facilities for Nenagh CBS. Another possibility was to exploit the military history of the site where a museum of North Tipperary History could be developed.