€5m security bill for Biden ‘holiday’
Staggering €65m extra sought for Justice Minister’s budget €9.45m bill for VIPs policing and events alone ‘Funding must be realistic,’ minister told
FRANCES Fitzgerald asked for a massive €5m in taxpayer funds to cover the cost of security when US Vice President Joe Biden and members of his family made a ‘deeply personal’ visit here earlier in the year.
That was the same amount that had been allocated to the high-profile operation in Dublin earlier this year – to tackle gangland crime amid a bitter, murderous feud.
Mr Biden’s six-day/five-night visit to Ireland took place in June, when he travelled here along with his brother and sister, his daughter, and five grandchildren.
The funds for the trip were sought in a letter from the Justice Minister in May, and they were just part of a €9.45m price-tag for protecting VIP visitors and commemorative events this year.
The letter included a note for an extra €950,000 to cover the security costs for the short visit of Prince Charles and his wife Camilla to Donegal in late May.
The minister’s letter, released under Freedom of Information rules, was sent to the Department of Public Expenditure as part of a formal request from her department, seeking an extra €65m for policing this year.
Remarkably, almost 8% of that related to the Biden visit.
At the same time, the department was under pressure to find savings in prisons and others services to help ease its overrun in spending.
In her letter to Paschal Donohoe, who had just become Expenditure Minister, Ms Fitzgerald wrote: ‘In addition, extra costs will arise in the context of necessary security arrangements relating to the protection of visiting dignitaries. The costs associated with the recent visit of HRH Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall on 25 May 2016 are in the order of €950,000.’
She added: ‘Vice President Biden is scheduled to arrive for a five-night visit next month and it is likely that some €5m will be required to provide the necessary security services.’
The Department of Justice said yesterday that the final bill for the Biden trip was ‘not yet available’.
As well as several days spent in Dublin, Mr Biden also visited Newgrange and the Cooley Peninsula in Co. Louth where his ancestors had lived. He also stopped off in Co. Mayo, where he watched Ireland’s Euro 2016 match against Italy in a pub in Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s home town of Castlebar.
Mr Biden’s ancestors, the Finnegans and Blewitts, emigrated from Louth and Mayo during the Famine. Although the visit was described as deeply personal for Mr Biden, that made no difference to security arrangements, which involved hundreds of gardaí and Defence Forces personnel.
When the Justice Minister sought permission from party colleague Mr Donohoe in May, to spend the extra €65m on security, she said it was to deal with the ‘unprecedented level of policing activities’ that were to take place this year.
However, following negotiations with the Expenditure Department, the figure was reduced to €55m.
Ms Fitzgerald explained that significant resources had already been spent trying to tackle gangland crime, particularly related to the Kinahan-Hutch feud.
She wrote: ‘In light of recent atrocities, particularly in the Dublin inner-city area, considerable Garda resources are currently being deployed to disrupt and investigate activities connected with serious organised crime gangs.’
She added that €5m had already been allocated for the feud but that more money – the exact figure for which has been redacted from the letter – was needed to keep going. ‘These operations, while labour-intensive, are clearly having an impact – both in detecting and interrupting the criminal gangs and reassuring the public,’ the minister wrote.
She also sought extra money (with the amount again redacted from the documents seen my the MoS) to continue Operation Thor, a crackdown on burglary gangs particularly in rural areas.
She explained that there had been 19,000 anti-crime patrols and 23,000 targeted checkpoints, which had ‘achieved notable success’.
Lastly, money was also needed to keep on track programmes for increasing Garda numbers, both full-time and reserve, increasing civilian staff, and investment in IT, cars and stations.
In an email from senior civil servants in the Expenditure Departments, Justice officials were told they should review their figures to try and bring them down.
The message read: ‘Your department must re-examine and pursue all opportunities to reallocate/redeploy resources from other less priority areas.’
The officials were told that it was
‘Biden visit accounted for 8% of €65m sought’ Department pledged to cut prison spending
‘not acceptable’ that with a €2.2bn budget, there was no room to look for savings elsewhere.
‘It would be much better for the outcome if your department tables a reassessment of the ask for additional Exchequer funding, which this time includes a more acceptable and realistic component of… savings,’ it concluded.
In a summary document, prepared for the Expenditure Department, it was explained that ultimately a total of €55m would be needed.
That was made up of €50.9m in Garda overtime, €2.65m in travel and subsistence expenses, €226,000 for other expenses, and €2.14m for operational equipment.
The Department of Justice also promised to make savings of €15.5m through cost-cutting in other areas such as prisons.
The document said that would bring the extra allocation needed down to €40.5m when the savings were taken into account.