Only one-third of the 4,412 available single living-in accommodation units on Department of Defence property is occupied, according to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Mr John Purcell, in his report on a Value for Money Examination of Department of Defence Property, said 2,215 unoccupied units were rated as "sub-standard" and were partly used for storage or during training activities.
The property records indicated that 117 out of 473 married quarters were vacant and practically all unoccupied married quarters were in poor condition.
Since 1988, 219 married quarters had been sold off and yielded £2.3 million.
Rental charges have not been increased since April 1988 and range from £767 to £1,402 per annum for officers' quarters and from £1.55 to £19.48 a week for other ranks. The property management business plan includes a provision for a review of rents.
The properties consist of a range of facilities from conventional military barracks to forts, camps, dwelling houses and lands which are mainly used for training purposes. The principal assets are 34 permanently occupied barracks which were taken over from the British government in 1922.
"The Department has recognised that these barracks are not all in ideal locations to serve the current needs of the Defence Forces and that some barracks are no longer required. A plan to dispose of six barracks was announced in July 1998," the report said.
Expenditure on the upkeep of property in 1997 was £27.2 million. A survey in 1994 found that property management was the ninth-highest user of military manpower and used more time than military functions such as equipment maintenance, internal security operations and transport.
This expenditure included almost £11 million relating to payroll costs of over 600 civilian employees engaged in barracks maintenance work. The ratio of civilian payroll to materials expenditure was very high which suggested that there was scope for improving the efficiency of the maintenance work.
"This expenditure also included some £4.4 million for security duties. The high cost of security duties has been attributed to the excessive number of facilities and to not maximising the use of modern security technology or to contracting out work where it may be economically justified."
The report said while strategy statements had been produced, they did not adequately cater for the management of the property.
In view of the ongoing reorganisation of the Defence Forces, there was a need to develop a strategy to determine the ongoing property requirements and to maximise returns from disposal of surplus assets.