Columb Barracks will not be used to house refugees, says Burke

Columb Barracks won’t be used to house Ukrainian refugees who have fled the Russian invasion of their country, a local member of government says.

According to reports, army facilities, as well as hotels and people’s homes will be used to accommodate the up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees expected to arrive in Ireland in the coming weeks.

However, speaking to the Westmeath Examiner yesterday, Minister of State Peter Burke said the poor state of repair of the accommodation at Columb Barracks means that it is highly unlikely that refugees will be housed there.

“The Irish Red Cross are co-ordinating things along with the Department of Justice. A clear mechanism hasn’t been established yet. I haven’t heard anything about the barracks and I don’t envisage hearing anything... Mullingar barracks is in no fit state to house people at the moment.”

Minister Burke’s party leader in Fine Gael, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, told the Dáil last week that Ireland should reconsider its defence policy, particularly its neutrality, in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“I think we’ll need to think about deeper involvement in European Defence,” he said.

Minister Burke says that although Ireland’s neutrality has enabled it to distinguish itself when its soldiers carried out peacekeeping duties for the UN, it is time for a debate on the issue.

“I think we have to have it [debate]. We are militarily neutral but we aren’t politically neutral. We have been leaders across the world in peacekeeping and negotiation of stable environments in other jurisdictions. We are at the forefront of that, which is why we won a seat on the UN Security Council in the first round. That is unprecedented for a small country.

“Peace keeping missions require the green light from the UN, the cabinet to sign off on it, and the approval of the Oireachtas.

“Obviously Russian has a veto on the UN so potentially Russia could not stop Ireland engaging in missions across the world. I don’t think this would be a satisfactory position post this crisis when you see what Russia has done over the past few weeks.

“I have given you an example of where it has its limitations, but we have to be careful in terms of our position in the world. This would be dear to me, in terms of us being a strong country providing peacekeeping missions.”