€7m reason cash vans lost their army escort
Armed military cash-in-transit guards cost €2.9m in 2002; by 2010, with air escorts included, it was €7.4m. It’s a ‘needless cost’, says senior bank source
THE Irish Army has ended its armed escorts of large bank cash transfers after over 35 years as banks moved to save themselves the €7m a year they spend warding off armed assailants.
Figures seen by the Irish Mail on Sunday show the cost of providing armed military protection for cash-in-transit vans rose from €2m to €7m per year in a decade.
Soldiers and gardaí said these costs were paltry compared to the billions in State money pumped into Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank.
Senior bank executives admitted the move was an effort to save on what they described as ‘exorbitant’ charges by the State.
The Irish Bank Officials’ Association last night expressed con-
‘Investments we’ve put into security measures’
cern about the safety of workers. And there were worries about the future of the soldiers who provided armed protection for 1,900 armed transports a year.
There was no comment from Felix O’Regan of the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, which negotiated the payments to the State.
The Defence Forces confirmed last night that cash-in-transit army escorts, also known as the ‘the aid to civil power’, initiated by the Government in 1978, at the height of the Troubles, had ended in the last two weeks.
The Department of Defence last night said the monies received for the service had risen from €2.86m in 2002 to €7.47m in 2010.
A statement explained: ‘Previous to 2005, the contribution from the banks only part-covered the total costs to the State of providing cash escorts. An agreement that was signed with the Irish Banking Federation and its member banks in 2005 provides that the banks will pay the total actual costs incurred in the provision by the Defence Forces of cash escorts for the banks.
‘This agreement was subsequently renewed in 2011.’
Senior bank executive sources claimed the cessation of armed army escorts for cash-in-transit trucks is a ‘good thing’.
‘With the amount of investment we put into security measures in recent years it was felt that the vans didn’t need armed protection any more,’ said a senior bank executive.
‘Even in the worst of times in the Troubles in Northern Ireland, there was never an armed army escort for cash vans. I think the army are putting this out because they are worried about losing €7m a year from their budget. But it was a needless cost for us.’
The army and the gardaí cooperated on cash-in-transit escorts in the last 35 years. The army was involved in 1,900 cash- in-transit escorts last year with varying degrees of resources.
In some instances this would amount to armed personnel in army vehicles but, in large operations, Air Corps helicopters and aeroplanes were involved.
It is not clear what the security arrangements will be for these escorts in the future.
‘The notes will be ink dyed’
Larry Broderick, of the Irish Bank Officials’ Association said his organisation was concerned about changes that would reduce ‘security surrounding the movement of cash between banks’.
‘Any move that would make it more attractive for criminal gangs to target bank premises would clearly place bank workers at additional risk,’ he added.
The Provisional IRA targeted large cash consignments in the past. A high-profile murder of a member of the security forces occurred when the IRA killed Detective Jerry McCabe who was escorting a cash transfer in 1996.
It is understood that rank and file gardaí will seek clarification on the ending of army involvement in cash security.
‘This is going on for a quite a while, the banks made a huge investment in the last couple of years in what they call end to end cash-in-transit,’ said an executive at a national commercial bank.
‘In other words, the money is completely secure from the kerb to the place where it is being brought, so it means if somebody now goes to whack a van, the stuff is going to be destroyed.
‘The notes will be ink dyed or there will be an alarm,’ he added.