Council paid €1.1m last year to collect coins from meters

New figures from Dublin City Council confirm it paid an Irish wing of international security firm G4S more than €1 million last year to collect coins from its parking meters.

The figures show that in the last quarter of 2014 alone, G4S Cash Solutions Ltd received €265,668 for the work.

This followed payments of €208,273, €272,471 and €395,424 in the other three quarters of 2014.

The payment of the €1.141 million to the firm works out at more than €3,126 per day for the service in 2014.

G4S Cash has operated the contract over the past three years and the contract is due to come up for renewal in the second quarter of this year, when it will be open for other companies to tender for the work.

A Dublin City Council spokesman said yesterday: “Another contract was in place before this one. Dublin City Council would not have the staff resources to carry out this work directly.”

Last year, the council raised revenue of €24.1 million from paid on-street parking – a marginal increase on the €24.01 million raised in 2013. Over the past four years, the council has raised €96.8 million from paid on-street parking.