Crime & Law

Gardaí paid more than €6.8m for policing events

Organisers of Electric Picnic, the National Ploughing Championships and Ireland rugby matches among those charged for garda presence

Gardaí are paid for policing duties at concerts, sports events and festivals, and for escorts of unusually large cargo on the country’s road network. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA
Gardaí are paid for policing duties at concerts, sports events and festivals, and for escorts of unusually large cargo on the country’s road network. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA
Ken Foxe
Thu Jul 25 2024 - 17:15

Gardaí were paid more than €6.8 million over the past year for policing duties at concerts, sports events and festivals, and for escorts of unusually large cargo on the country’s road network.

The single-biggest fee was paid by Festival Republic for a garda presence at Electric Picnic last year, with a final tab of €349,110 for the event.

The next highest bill was the €324,900 that MCD paid An Garda Síochána for a series of concerts that took place in Marlay Park last summer.

The organisers of the National Ploughing Championships also ran up a sizeable policing bill, with gardaí paid €227,421 for working at the event last autumn.

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Other significant fees included €181,400 from Festival Republic for a series of gigs at Malahide Castle and €136,6000 from the PGA European Tour for the Irish Open golf tournament at the K Club last September.

Rounding out the top 10 most costly bills were events at Musgrave Park in Cork, St Anne’s Park in Dublin, the RDS, and one in Waterford, as well as policing for the annual Bloom Festival in the Phoenix Park. Costs for these ranged from €75,000 to about €104,000.

Gardaí said the 10 largest bills – which together totalled about €1.65 million – had already been paid by the promoters and companies involved and that there was no money outstanding.

Under Freedom of Information laws, they also provided details of the five companies that paid the most in non-public duty policing fees last year.

Top of the list was Mar-Train Heavy Haulage, who paid €907,068 to gardaí; the company specialises in the movement of very heavy loads such as wind turbines and large plant machinery.

Concert promoters MCD paid An Garda Síochána €874,849 last year while the next highest bill was that of the IRFU, which paid nearly €350,000 for policing of rugby matches, mostly at the Aviva Stadium.

A further €236,259 was paid by Munster GAA for a variety of hurling and football games, according to the data released.

Gardaí said that so-called non-public duty was carried out by their officers under arrangements with promoters and organisers of matches, concerts, race meetings and other large events.

An information note said: “[They would] seek to engage the services of members of An Garda Síochána to perform duties to which they would not normally be assigned.

“Members of An Garda Síochána have been made available for the performance of such duties and the State has charged for their services.”

In an information note, gardaí said that non-public duty was usually carried out by members that were otherwise off-duty.

“It is generally the practice to charge organisations for the costs of duties performed by members inside the event. At all times, it is the policy of An Garda Síochána that the safety of the public must be the ultimate concern,” they said.