Gardai have been paid more than €4 million for non-public duty events including Hollywood films, the moving of abnormal loads by trucks, sports events, and concerts over the past 18 months.
The amount of money being paid has risen significantly this year with the wider resumption of events after Covid-19 restrictions.
Last year, An Garda Síochána collected €1.92 million in non-public duty fees but already in the first six months of this year, €2.17 million has been paid over.
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Gardaí said the costliest event so far in 2022 was a series of concerts at Malahide Castle in June, for which MCD paid them €271,845.
The next largest bill of just over €150,000 was paid for music events at St Anne’s Park in June, including gigs by Duran Duran and Kodaline.
All eight of the next largest bills were paid for events at the Aviva Stadium – a mixture of concerts, and rugby and soccer games with gardaí paid between €19,000 and €47,000 for their work for each event.
Last year’s highest fees all related to rugby and soccer games at the Aviva, or GAA matches at Croke Park. The bills ranged between €14,000 and €28,000, according to figures released under FOI.
Gardaí said that altogether non-public duty events had raised €4.088 million since January 2021, all of which has been recouped from the companies involved.
A list of the companies that paid the highest fees to An Garda show last year how a haulage firm paid nearly €310,000 for non-public duties.
The company, Mar-Train Heavy Haulage, provides transport services for abnormal or wide loads, and specialises in moving wind farm components.
Another €247,000 was paid by the firm Potteries Haulage for similar types of services.
Non-public duty costs of around €123,000 were paid by GAA Croke Park for their events while Clocktower Films – whose movie Enchanted was filmed at locations including Enniskerry, Co Wicklow – paid over €115,000 to gardaí.
A sum of €112,000 was paid by the University of Limerick to gardaí to carry out patrols in off-campus areas following public concerns over anti-social activity and large-scale parties.
So far this year, the biggest spender has been MCD, who have handed over almost €605,000 for a range of events they ran.
Next up were the IRFU with bills of €196,892 with a series of high-profile Six Nations games, and the FAI who have paid nearly €113,000 so far in 2022.
Daytona Heavy Haulage – another transport firm providing specialised moving services – have paid €66,859 while Amphitheatre Ireland paid €65,105.
An information note said: “Non-public duty is performed by members of An Garda Síochána under arrangements with organisers of events such as football matches, concerts and race meetings etc.
“[They] seek to engage the services of members of An Garda Síochána to perform duties to which they would not normally be assigned.”
Gardaí said the work was normally performed by members who would “otherwise be off duty” and that it was generally the practice to charge for policing inside the events.
They said: “In general, the cost of policing duties performed by gardaí outside the event such as traffic controls, beat patrols, and other public policing duties … are not paid by the organisation hosting the event.
“However, at some specific larger events, An Garda Síochána seeks a contribution from the promoters to overall policing costs.”
The information note said this was generally agreed by the local district officer with the organisers, taking account of the nature and size of the event.
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