169,021 Gardai Overtime Hours Clocked Up on Bush Visit

national | anti-war / imperialism | news report Friday December 10, 2004 18:24 by mark h

Over 8million euros has been spent on cost of all security arrangements for Bush's visit

New figures obtained by Joe Costello in reply to a written Dail question reveal that an astonishing 169,021 Garda overtime hours were required to provide security arrangements for the 18 hour visit of President George Bush to this country in June.

While the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, was unable to give Deputy Costello a final figure for the cost of all security arrangements for the visit, because a number of claims and other miscellaneous charges remain outstanding, a total of €8.027m has been clocked up to date.

Garda overtime costs around €25 per hour, so the total cost of the overtime alone is likely to have amounted to around €4.225m. Based on an annual average salary of around €40,000, the €8.027m would be sufficient to pay for 200 extra Gardai.

“I think the Irish taxpayer is entitled to ask if we got value for the huge expenditure involved in what appeared to be basically a pre-election
photo-opportunity for President Bush.” said Deputy Costello