Minister for Justice outlines cost of policing
After the Reclaim the Streets demo on the 22nd there was some wondering on Indymedia as to how much the excessive police presence had cost.
According to questions put to the Government by Sinn Féin yesterday the cost to the State was 9,764.54 Euros
In response to further questions from Sinn Féin the Minister stated that the cost to the State of policing anti war marches and demonstrations from July 2002 to 23rd September 2003 has been 837,485.32 Euros.
The cost of policing these demos and marches at Shannon and in Dublin in the same period amounted to 671,577.56 Euros and 160,250.88 Euros respectively.
Interesting that despite the far larger numbers on Dublin demos, the Shannon policing was much more expensive.
Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4Would these figures include wages that would be paid anyway as Gardaí would be on duty regardless of anti war demos. Or are these figures in addition to standard wages, ie overtime etc.
I'm not surprised at Shannon, remember all those ditches they dug! Also they would have had to have bussed Gardaí from other areas into shannon.
It is my understanding that it includes total cost, including things like the Garda's normal wage and so on.
from the filing cabinet:
Tuesday, Dec 17 2002
In reply to a question from Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe the Minister for Justice stated today that the cost of security to police the protest at Shannon Airport on the weekend of 6 to 8 December 2002 was 29,211 Euros. The cost of security to protect American military aircraft that stopover at Shnnon Airport since January 2002 was 12,183 Euros. The cost of security to police other protests at Shannon Airport since January 2002 was 17, 960 Euros. All in all, just under 60,000 Euros in total.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=21966
by using soft mathematics which do appear to becoming popular of late:
Dec 6- Dec 8 = 29,211€
Jan 2002 - Dec 2002 = 60,000€.
those three days at Shannon last year equalled half the cost of the year 2002.
y(+/-)(+/-)x = x(+/-)(+/-)y
as they say.
Please remember the Irish State is not bankrupted by these costs, and the figures are heavily massaged, not included are "outsourced" costs carried by the non state security companies, bribes to keep the heavy mammy's home, petrol for the police vans or even petrol for the helicopter. = carry on!
remember the highest cost of all is that of lost revenue due to congestion.
Dublin averages 4,000,000€ a day of one hour protest, which using the softmath means one regular protester is worth about 2,000€ an hour.
q. how much do RTS events cost RTS people?
q. how much do anti-War events cost anti-War people?
q. how much does the internet cost the internauts?
A. the more efficient entities are small and sweet.
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