NO ITEM of clothing or equipment will be manufactured by an Irish company to fill a three-year €12 million contract to supply 14,000 uniforms to An Garda Síochána, the Department of Finance has revealed.
Replying to Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar, Minister of State at the Department of Finance Martin Mansergh said the contract was awarded to James Boylan Safety Limited, Milltown, Co Monaghan, following a tender.
Sixty individual items, including shirts, trousers, jumpers, overcoats, belts, gloves, and other items, will be manufactured in the UK, Czech Republic, Portugal, India, Sri Lanka and China.
“In addition, I can confirm that no Irish manufactured garments were offered by any of the other tenderers in the Garda uniform competition,” Mr Mansergh said.
Tunics and overcoats will be manufactured in Prostejon in the Czech Republic; trousers in Ahmedabad, India; skirts in Vola do Conde, Portugal; jerseys in Leicester in the UK; caps in Sri Lanka; gloves in China and Pakistan; trousers, fleeces, waterproof reflective coats and socks in China; and coats in Indonesia.
The Co Monaghan company, which employs 50 people and has an annual turnover of €15 million, donates 15 per cent of its profits to an Indian educational charity which it set up called Educo.
This has spent €600,000 to date building and running schools there. Two schools have been built in Mumbai and Kolkata, while 41,000 schoolbooks have been bought for orphans in Kerala.
Eventually, the firm hopes to build one school every year in India and educate 5,000 within five years.
Gardaí have already been measured, or will be shortly, for their new uniforms which are similar to the existing issue.
Once manufactured abroad, the individual pieces will be put together for each office at the Monaghan factory.