Gardai spent almost €183,000 purchasing three new hybrid and electric vehicles for their fleet of cars to transport government ministers and other officeholders.
An Garda Síochána said the €182,975 outlay had covered the cost of buying two Audi A6 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles last year and a fully electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 this year.
A hybrid Lexus vehicle had already been in the fleet since 2019 joining the 14 existing diesel-engine cars used for ministerial and officeholder travel.
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Gardai say on their website that fully electric vehicles are not yet considered a practical solution for certain “sensitive security duties”.
The new electric Hyundai Ioniq has so far clocked up just 3,363 kilometres since its purchase this year, according to records released in response to a request for environmental information.
The two Audi A6 hybrid plug-in vehicles – both of which were purchased last year – have logged 66,050 and 51,800 kilometres, the gardaí said.
The remainder of the diesel fleet have clocked up an incredible 3.44 million kilometres, with some of the vehicles almost 10 years old.
Four Audi A6 cars, each of them bought in 2013, have between 285,000 and 327,000 kilometres on their odometers, according to records.
However, the vehicle with the highest mileage is another Audi A6, which was bought in 2014, and has 379,000 kilometres on its clock.
Gardai said two older cars had been taken out of service during the past two years and were disposed of under a “vehicle end of life contract” in place.
That resulted in a return of €3,455 in scrap value payments being paid to the Exchequer, the document release showed.
Gardai said they would not say which officeholder or politician was allocated to which vehicle, saying this was not environmental information.
They said the overall cost of running the ministerial fleet last year was €1.207 million, which included the cost of fuel, driver salaries, maintenance, and other related costs.
A spokesman said: “The primary task of the ministerial fleet is the protection of senior public office holders. An Garda Síochána does not comment on matters of personal security.
“An Garda Síochána uses the Office of Government Procurement vehicle purchase contracts to purchase all vehicles. An Garda Síochána is not in a position to comment on vehicle costs.”
Gardai say there are challenges in the use of fully electric vehicles in policing - especially around where they would be charged.
In an information note on their website, they said it was not appropriate or safe for garda vehicles to be left unattended while charging up at public charging points.
However, 20 locations – one in each garda division and another at Garda HQ – have been identified for the provision of charging infrastructure.
They also said that once ministerial cars reached the end of service, they would be replaced, where appropriate, with low emission vehicles.
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