The Garda security operation for the visit of US president Joe Biden to Ireland cost the organisation more than €31 million, according to newly-released records.
Operation Fáilteach in April was one of the biggest security operations ever seen on the island of Ireland involving more than 2,000 Garda members. The sum spent this year is considerably higher than the estimate of up to €18 million spent by the Garda for the visits of former US president Donald Trump and former vice-president Mike Pence in 2019.
A Garda statement said Mr Biden’s visit was over three days “at multiple public and private events across Ireland that required a larger policing and security operation”. It said the visits by Mr Trump and Mr Pence “did not involve the same number of public and private events, nor the same number of locations”.
The cost of the previous security operation for the visits of US president Obama and Queen Elizabeth – both in May, 2011 – reached almost €40 million, nearly double the projected costs at the time.
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Details of Garda expenditure on the Biden visit were released following a Freedom of Information request. The records set out overtime costs for Garda members of €22.01 million and overtime costs for civilian staff of €130,000.
“Unsocial hour allowances” came to €1.87 million and Employer’s PRSI costs amounted to €2.4 million. Travel and subsistence costs amounted to €940,000 while “IT and communications-related costs” and “other operational equipment, accessories and consumables” came to a combined €1.44 million.
Other costs, including accommodation, refreshments, vehicle hire and “incidentals”, came to €2.3 million.
Mr Biden arrived in Northern Ireland on Tuesday, April 11th. His first engagements south of the Border were on Wednesday when he visited Carlingford Castle and Dundalk in Louth, a county where some of his ancestors hail from.
He visited the capital on Thursday, April 13th, where he addressed the Houses of the Oireachtas and also attended a banquet in his honour in Dublin Castle. The following day saw him travel to to Mayo – another ancestral home – where, among other engagements, he addressed a crowd of around 20,000 in Ballina before leaving Ireland to return to the US later that evening.
Garda spending on the trip included significant sums spent on accommodation and room hire in hotels across several different counties.
Some €303,150 was spent with Bus Éireann on transport and vehicle hire, and a further €59,400 on bus hire with Dublin Bus. A total of €385,800 was spent with a plant hire company for traffic management, lighting, signs and other services in the northwest. Costs for “event screening equipment” came to almost €158,300, while €269,400 was spent on barriers and other equipment. CCTV costs came to almost €72,000.
More than €7,900 was spent on “vehicle towing”, horse box hire cost €6,519 and almost €2,000 was spent on “vehicle inspection mirrors”. Over €8,700 was spent on Ballygowan water and €3,600 was spent with BWG Foods Limited – the owner of shops like Spar and Mace. The cost of portaloos came to €4,100, while €754 was spent on insect repellent.
