Select Committee on Northern Ireland Affairs Second Report


Appendix 7


Letter from Rt Hon Shaun Woodward MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, to Sir Patrick Cormack MP, Chairman of the Committee, 18 December 2007, re Redundant Military and Security Sites in Northern Ireland

Thank you for your letter of 25 October, enclosing one from Pat Doherty, MP, about the sites of vacated military installations at Lisanelly and St Lucia barracks, Omagh. I am, as you know, extremely sorry you have waited this long for a reply.

These installations are two of a number of military sites, no longer being used by the military following the normalisation programme, as set out in the 2003 Joint Declaration, which has been successfully completed.

The Reinvestment and Reform package of 2002 included certain such sites for free transfer to the Executive but the joint Declaration was not precise about which other sites might be made available or indeed about the terms on which they might be made available.

As Pat Doherty notes in his letter, the question of how these sites might be disposed, was raised in the Joint Declaration. Annex 1 of the Declaration outlined the planned security normalisation programme, paragraph 10 of that Annex states.

'Many of the vacated military and police (subject to the agreement of the Policing Board) sites might be made available to the OFM/DFM's Reinvestment and Reform Initiative to ensure that the process of normalisation generates a new public asset base for those communities most directly affected by the security arrangements to date.'

There is clearly scope for ambiguous interpretation. As you will appreciate the financial value of many of these sites is considerable, disposal below market value would be contrary to normal government accounting rules. It is already the case that such sites are normally offered to the Northern Ireland Executive at a price valued by the independent Valuation and Lands Agency rather than sold on the open market. It should also be noted that the Northern Ireland CSR settlement included a significant capital budget of £18bn for strategic capital investment spread over the period 2005 to 2017. Nonetheless, the Northern Ireland Office, and the Ministry of Defence (the disposal of vacated military sites, including the Lisanelly and St Lucia barracks sites, is of course a matter for MOD), remain committed to working closely with the Northern Ireland Executive, ensuring maximum benefit is derived from the development of these vacated sites.

For your information, Pat Doherty has written separately about the Omagh sites, also seeking a meeting which I will be happy to arrange in the New Year.


 
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