Security systems at the Phoenix Park house where former Garda commissioner Drew Harris lived during his tenure cost €212,000, with an annual monitoring charge of €2,500, the Minister for Justice has said.
Jim O’Callaghan also confirmed the monthly €1,800 rent was paid by An Garda Síochána, but Mr Harris paid benefit in kind in respect of that arrangement and waived a “considerable financial gain” from his pension.
“The former commissioner had the option of joining the single public service pension scheme or having a pension contribution equivalent to 18.4 per cent of salary being made to a pension scheme nominated by him.
“He waived that and, in fairness to him, that resulted in a considerable financial gain that he didn’t seek to accrue,” said Mr O’Callaghan.
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Mr O’Callaghan was answering TDs’ questions in the Dáil in the wake of allegations of a “sweetheart” deal and the impact on the “public purse” of the financial arrangements for the former commissioner.
The issue was raised at the Public Accounts Committee last month, when it was revealed the €21,600 rent did not change during Mr Harris’s tenure as commissioner from 2018 to 2025.
Mr O’Callaghan apologised to Labour justice spokesman Alan Kelly for the “incomplete” answer he got to a question he asked in September and again in October about the remuneration package for Mr Harris and for the current Commissioner.
Mr O’Callaghan acknowledged the answer was “very restrictive in terms of it just replied by stating: ‘This is the salary of the current Commissioner and the previous commissioner had the same salary’”.
It did not include details about the former commissioner’s accommodation.
Expressing frustration about responses he had received from the department, Mr Kelly said: “This isn’t the first time that I’ve had questions which haven’t been answered”. He asked for guarantees that answers in future “will be accurate and will not mislead the House”.
Mr O’ Callaghan told him he has “instructed officials in my department that when it comes to answering parliamentary questions, if it is the case that there is an interpretation that can be broad or narrow, they are to adopt the broad interpretation in giving an answer”. He said he has been telling them this consistently.
The Labour spokesman asked why all this information was hidden for so long and said “other candidates weren’t aware of the accommodation scenario. So was it a fair competition?”
Mr O’Callaghan denied the issue was hidden. He pointed to coverage of the former commissioner’s appointment in The Irish Times in December 2017, which “reported that the government may pay the accommodation costs and education fees for dependent children, if an international candidate is selected for the role of Garda commissioner”.
He said it was clear that, if the appointment came from outside, “there would have to be accommodation costs paid in respect of that individual”.
