What are the Gardaí spending the money on?
mayo |
rights, freedoms and repression |
news report 
Thursday August 07, 2008 18:01
by nuachtan
It's been reported that the gardaí have spent 11,000,000 euro on policing the protests against the Shell scheme to install a production pipeline and refinery in Kilcommon County Mayo.
The amount is more than half of what is being spent on fighting organised crime (€20M) and the Irish Independent newspaper reports that Garda sources are concerned that policing the protests is draining overtime budgets.
In May this year the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission recommended that there should be a general review of the way public protests are policed, in the light of more than 70 complaints received about the Corrib protests. GSOC wrote to Minister for Justice proposing that it carry out an examination of management of crowd protests and civil disobedience. However, the minister turned down the proposal, as he “did not feel that it was appropriate at that time”.
http://www.corribsos.com/index.php?id=1774
It has also been noted that the last time a figure for policing costs was received from the Dept of Justice was in May, when in response to a question in the Dáil by Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snoodaigh, the figure given was €8.9 million (not 8.6 as reported by the Independent). According to the Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, that figure covered costs from September 2006 to April 30th 2008.
http://www.corribsos.com/index.php?id=1766
In October 2007 the figure was put at €8.1 million by then Justice Minister Brian Lenihan.
This implies that in the months between October 2007 and April 2008 the policing cost was 800,000 euro, while since April 30th this year the gardaí have managed to spend €2.1 million. The Gardai are therefore spending every month nearly the same amount they used for the whole winter and spring.
No breakdown of the costs has been made available, and the recent figure was released to the Irish Independent without a question being asked of the Department of Justice.
The Corrib gas field is estimated to contain at least 1 TCF of natural gas, valued at approximately 16
billion dollars at current prices. All the gas in the field belongs to Shell and the other Corrib partners, and the contract stipulates that it will be sold at full market value. In a radio interview in July 2006, David Bunworth, head of Bord Gáis Energy Supply, spoke about the Corrib project. When he was asked, in the light of the gas being traded at international market price-
"So will it make any difference to the price Irish people pay for gas?"
'No it won't' -he replied.
(Five Seven Live, RTÉ radio One Friday 21st July 2006)