Minister Helen McEntee lauds local enterprise and raises barracks funding during Kilkenny visit

Fine Gael’s Deputy Leader stopped off in the Kilkenny for the first time since assuming her current ministerial positions

Published 8th May 2026, 16:35 BST Minister Helen McEntee inspects soldiers at James Stephens Military Barracks. Photo: Comdt Alex Quigley, Irish Defence Forces Fine Gael’s Deputy Leader stopped off in the Kilkenny for the first time since assuming her current ministerial positions Sign up to our Kilkenny Live newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know you can manage your profile, and explore all of the available newsletters from Kilkenny Live within your account.

Minister for Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Helen McEntee TD, visited Kilkenny on Thursday, completing a tour of James Stephens Military Barracks before addressing the Kilkenny Chamber at its President’s Dinner.

The Minister posed for photos with local and national Kilkenny and Carlow representatives such as TDs Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere, Catherine Callaghan and Jennifer Murnane O’Connor after being shown around the military installation’s facilities, including its recently upgraded gym.

Speaking to The Kilkenny People after inspecting the barracks, Ms McEntee stressed the importance of engagement through visits like this one in carrying out her ministerial duties.

“For me it’s essential, and I’m lucky in the last few weeks that I’ve had an opportunity to visit a lot of our barracks across the country, but it’s important for me not to just meet people on the ground and to engage with our defence personnel, but also to see the investment that’s taking place and to see where we can invest further,” she outlined.

“I think in the last few years alone here, about five million euro has been invested in the fantastic gym and services that we’ve just seen.”

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Even with this recent investment there had been some concerns over the future of the barracks, but Minister McEntee seemed to put these to bed by mentioning the possibility of funding both at James Stephens and later during her appearance at the Kilkenny Chamber event.

“I know there are more plans afoot, because this is a training college; this is about making sure that we can get more members into the defence forces,” she continued.

“Where there’s more accommodation that’s needed, where there’s more investment in physical infrastructure; that’s what I want to make sure we’re following through on, so the engagement that I’ve had here today has been really helpful,” she added.

Switching from her remit of defence to trade, the Minister praised the work of Kilkenny Chamber and also the level of diversity in business and trade within the county and wider region.

“They [Kilkenny Chamber] have a really important role for the county here in supporting and representing indigenous businesses and small and medium enterprise, but you also have a large number of international corporations and you can see how their membership has grown and adapted over the years,” Ms McEntee described.

“You have your agri-food and drink sector represented but you also have engineering, med-tech or finance and then more recently with the arts and culture with Cartoon Saloon and the Kilkenny Design Centre as well,” she continued.

The Minister was the guest of honour at the first event hosted by new Chamber President, Claire McInerney Brown, and Ms McEntee was looking forward to being able to both inform the Chamber members of the work being undertaken at government level and hear about the challenges being faced by local business owners first-hand.

“My engagement with them this evening really is to outline the work we’re doing as a government to continue to support the Chamber but more broadly businesses here, the economic environment for them and how we are committed to prioritising competitiveness,” she said.

“I would also say that I’m there to listen; so while I can explain some of the work we’re doing, it’s a really important forum to hear back some of the challenges that businesses are facing at the moment.”

“What businesses always say they need is certainty, so the fact there’s been so many changes whether it’s the war in the Middle East or the impact of fuel prices and commodities, I want to hear directly from them, what are the biggest challenges they’re facing at the moment and feed that work back into what we’re doing at government level,” she concluded.

Related topics: Helen McEntee Defence Forces Kilkenny Kilkenny Chamber Sign up to our Kilkenny Live newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know you can manage your profile, and explore all of the available newsletters from Kilkenny Live within your account.