THE COST of Garda security for the visits of Queen Elizabeth and President Barack Obama to Ireland has jumped to an estimated €36 million from a previously anticipated €21 million.
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter yesterday told the Dáil justice committee he greatly regretted the escalated costs and blamed “political malcontents and thugs” who wanted to disrupt the visits in May.
Mr Shatter said the “vast scale” of the security operation put in place by An Garda Síochána to protect the Queen and the US president was commensurate with the “very real” security threats involved and the risk of enormous reputational damage to the country in the event of anything going wrong.
“The cost involved in the operation was very significant and I am informed that the final figure is likely to be in the region of €36 million. If we didn’t have a very small group of political malcontents and thugs who posed a threat at the time of these visits … if we didn’t have individuals of that nature the level of security required wouldn’t have been as high and the expense incurred by the taxpayer wouldn’t be as great.”
Mr Shatter said some individuals had “engaged in subversion” and revealed that a series of what turned out to be hoax bomb threat phonecalls were placed during the visits.
Hundreds of rioters clashed with gardaí for almost three hours in Dublin city centre on the first day of the Queen’s visit, throwing fireworks, bottles and bricks. The following night gardaí were involved in a stand-off with a crowd of several hundred. They included representatives of Éirígí, Republican Sinn Féin and the 32 County Sovereignty Committee.
Fianna Fáil TD Dara Calleary expressed concern about what he described as the “jump” in cost from an estimate of about €21 million committee members heard some weeks ago, while Independent TD Finian McGrath said he was “absolutely astounded” at the final figure, which represented a 71 per cent increase on the estimate.
Mr Shatter said the cost of the security operations had not been factored into his department’s estimates and were going to have to be addressed by the Government. The cost should be balanced against what he said would be substantial long-term benefits to the country.
