MINISTER FOR Justice and Defence Alan Shatter has suggested the Garda Síochána may have to absorb some of the €36 million cost of the security operations for the visits to the Republic of Queen Elizabeth and US president Barack Obama.
Senior Garda officers had always believed the cost would be absorbed into other State coffers because no provision for the visits was made in the Garda budget for 2011 when it was framed at the end of last year.
The Garda Representative Association has expressed concern at Mr Shatter’s remarks. The association’s president Damien McCarthy said that even before the visits last May, they had warned of “drastic consequences” for policing in the Republic if the Garda was asked to absorb the costs, saying a supplementary budget was clearly needed.
The PSNI had just been granted £250 million a year in additional funding to fight terrorism at a time when the Garda may now be asked to pay for part of the biggest security operation ever in the State out of a budget for 2011 that included no provision for any of those costs.
"Every person in the force was asked to dig deep to make the visits a success; people left their homes in different parts of the country for 10 and 12 days to work on the operation and leave, holidays and rest days were cancelled." In an editorial in the association's official magazine Garda Review,general secretary PJ Stone said the Government "had hosted a party and are now reneging on paying for it".
The magazine was published yesterday, though Mr Stone’s editorial was written before Mr Shatter made his remarks.
Other Garda sources pointed out that the Garda was already under extreme financial pressure, with cost-cutting overtime bans having been introduced into units that fight organised crime. Mr Shatter said the issue about who would pay for the security for the May visits would be resolved in coming weeks in talks between himself and Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin.
However, he added the Garda was being well managed in an efficient and tight manner and that it may not be necessary to look outside the Garda vote to cover some of the costs.
He made his remarks at the ninth annual Garda-PSNI seminar on cross-Border organised crime in Gormanston, Co Meath.
Informed Garda sources said that at about the time of the visits it was anticipated the Garda and Defence Forces costs would reach €20 million and that the Government had given assurances this would not come from the Garda budget.
“We think that €20 million will still be paid by the Government, but the real cost was €36 million so we presume the issue is how much of the additional €16 million we will have to shoulder.”
Away from the controversy over the cost of security for the May visits, Mr Shatter said the increasing level of North-South co-operation in the political and policing spheres “sent a clear message to criminals that they will find no safe haven on either side of the Border”.
