The Department of Public Expenditure was warned that cutting the budget set aside for An Garda Síochána to police the EU presidency risked undermining the security arrangements in place for high-level meetings and summits, internal documents show.
The amount of money allocated to cover policing and security costs was scaled back to €125 million during negotiations mapping out how much the State expected to spend hosting the six-month Council of the European Union presidency, correspondence between Government departments shows.
The internal emails, seen by The Irish Times, reveal the Department of Justice warned it had trimmed back its estimated security budget “beyond what we had anticipated would be achievable”.
Officials told counterparts in the Department of Public Expenditure that any further reduction would not be possible “without putting at risk the provision of appropriate security and policing arrangements” for the presidency period.
RM Block
The budget earmarked for Garda overtime and other additional costs was set at €125 million, despite requests for a larger allocation.
The Government has estimated the presidency will cost about €300 million in total. The influential role rotates between EU member states every six months and involves steering the Brussels policymaking agenda for the period.
Senior sources in Government and other State institutions have said preparations had been made on the basis that there will be attempts to disrupt political meetings hosted in Ireland, by Russia, some other malign actor, or public protests.
There will be 22 ministerial-level EU meetings held in the State and a big summit of nearly 50 European heads of state and government, necessitating an extensive security operation to safeguard visiting politicians and delegations.
The €125 million budget was a “reasonable” estimate for the extra costs that would be borne by the Garda during the presidency “at this juncture”, a Department of Justice official wrote in a November 24th email released under the Freedom of Information Act.
The back and forth shows the pressure on departments to keep extra spending in check while the State holds the EU deal-making role until the end of the year.
In a separate email, sent on December 1st last, justice officials told the Department of Public Expenditure they had pared back the amount they planned to spend by the “maximum possible degree”.
“I must emphasise – this really is the minimum level of funding required and will involve very difficult choices, including knowingly under-resourcing a number of areas during the period of the presidency,” it stated.
The Department of Public Expenditure separately brought concerns that security costs were racking up to a cross-Government presidency planning group.
Officials warned the number of EU events being organised by Government departments would be “logistically difficult to resource from a security point of view”, according to minutes of a November discussion.
At the time, it appeared demands and security costs might “exceed” what had been budgeted for, the department told colleagues.
All the effort being put into staging high-level meetings might also “distract” officials from the important day-to-day work in Brussels, chairing EU policy discussions, said civil servants.
The Department of Justice declined to say how much it had initially sought to cover extra Garda spending and overtime.
A business case “was subject to discussion before the final agreed figure of €125 million was allocated”, said a spokeswoman. “The presidency is an important duty for Ireland and is a time when we will be at the centre of Europe, showcasing our nation, our public services, and our ambition.”
