A MASSIVE BUILDING and refurbishment scheme across all Irish military bases is expected to cost €355 million in the next three years.
The Infrastructure Development Plan (IDP) is a capital investment project which will see Defence Forces facilities refurbished and designed to be carbon neutral.
Many of the military’s buildings have seen little work done to modernise them since the British handed over the structures more than 100 years ago.
We sat down recently with 33-year-veteran Colonel Damien McEvoy who is the director of engineering and is leading the huge undertaking.
McEvoy said the work is complicated as many of the buildings, including the historic McKee Barracks in Dublin, are architecturally and historically significant and the work must protect the original structure.
The work has included a major refurbishment of an accommodation block at the Napoleonic era Haulbowline Naval Base, a complete building programme across McKee and also large scale building projects that include new training facilities and a new Special Forces base for the Army Ranger Wing.
The McKee project, is located on a site between the Phoenix Park and Blackhorse Avenue in Cabra, is a huge refurbishment and building programme of modern offices and workshops.
McEvoy said a key consideration in the work were Climate Action Energy targets that mean the military must achieve a 51% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.
While the Colonel admits it is a challenge he said the military are on target to achieve that ambition and part of the refurbishment has been to install modern systems like heat pumps in all buildings.
There is also a massive roll out of solar panels for all military buildings – they have just commissioned a project to place a large solar panel farm on the Defence Force’s training grounds at Kilworth in County Cork.
McEvoy said that it is not a new development as the military has been working on meeting the Green Deal, the European Union’s response to climate change which was approved in 2020.
The initiative is a plan to reach climate neutrality across Europe. In other parts of the Irish military they are examining changing their Armoured Personnel Carriers and large lorries to hydrogen fuelled.
“The transport side of it is going to be a real challenge but on the buildings, I’m confident that we can make that 51% reduction and the reason I’m confident is because we’ve been tracking energy use since 2009.
“We’ve an energy management system, where we monitor the energy use on a monthly basis. And at the moment, we’re sitting on a reduction of 38.7% in greenhouse gas emissions on our built infrastructure compared to the 2016 and 2018 figures.
“How we’re doing that is we have a climate and defence strategy. We have a climate action roadmap, and we have an energy register.
“In short, what we’re doing is we’re trying to decarbonise our buildings by virtue of electrifying our heat. So there’s a moratorium on any fossil fuel heating system going into a building,” he said.
McEvoy said that the heat pump focus has meant that there is a need to fill the ancient empty voids in brick work – many buildings were built more than 170 years old. These must be filled with foam also to ensure.
One of the key challenges, particularly in a campus like McKee Barracks, is that the engineers cannot simply install modern triple-glazed windows given the heritage status.
McEvoy said: “There is no single solution to the climate crisis and the time for exploring pilot projects is gone, you now need to action it – 2030 is only around the corner.
“That’s why at the moment, we are attacking carbon reduction everywhere with multiple solutions.
“I think infrastructure and energy run in tandem. You can’t deal with infrastructure, and ignore energy – they go hand in hand,” he added.
McEvoy said that the building programme to reduce the carbon footprint is being done while the Engineering Corps are also seeking to refurbish the buildings – the heritage aspect has meant that some unique approaches have had to be taken.
McKee Barracks was built in 1892 as a “warfighting cavalry” facility for the British Army – the location apparently picked because of its proximity to the nearby railway line.
There is an urban myth that the ornate McKee Barracks was built in Dublin by mistake when the brick work and plans, destined for an Indian barracks, were sent to the Ireland in error. McEvoy disproves that and said there is no truth in that long held fantasy.
The only remaining horses are those for the Irish Army Equitation School which still maintains stables on the site.
It was originally known as Marlborough Barracks but was renamed after the War of Independence in honour of prominent War of Independence fighter Dick McKee.
McKee was summarily executed by British forces along with Peadar Clancy and Conor Clune while they were held captive in Dublin Castle. It is not just the recorded history of the facility that must be maintained but also the building’s unique architecture.
McEvoy showed us the work being completed by contractors working on site on behalf of the military.
The array of skills include a dedicated red clay brick making facility complete with a kiln. A team of brick makers, using the same skills as those builders from the 1890s, are now keeping that skill alive in McKee.
The roof tiles have been brought in from the UK and the clay from Germany – it is a huge operation.
McEvoy said heritage and climate change initiatives are not the only challenges faced by the Engineering Corps – the cost and the lack of building professionals is also an issue.
“I think money is always a challenge. We can never have enough money to deliver what we want to do and construction is expensive.
“We know inflation is starting to come down a little bit but certainly for some of our barracks, the likes of McKee here, which is an architectural conservation area there’s a premium every time you go to do some work on a barracks like this.
“We would like to deliver more but the reality is the funding for this project is that we have a steady State funding now of €50 to €55 million.
I’d like to think that as the pipeline starts to ramp up, there will be more money available to allow us to deliver more projects in a quicker timeline,” he said.
The Department of Defence has said in a statement: “The Defence Forces Infrastructure Development Plan (IDP) sets out a programme of project delivery for the years 2023 to 2027. The updated Plan estimates infrastructure requirements to be in the region of some €300m for the coming years.”
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