Banks to pay extra €2m for Garda escort

The main banks have agreed to pay an extra €2 million towards the cost of Garda security for cash escorts, the Dáil Public Accounts Committee has been told.

However, the banks are still only paying about half the full costs of providing this security, the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell, told the committee.

The committee chairman, Mr John Perry TD, said it was "totally unacceptable" that each escort was being subsidised by an average €6,000 when the combined profits of the bank exceeded €2.5 billion each year.

Currently, the banks pay the Garda €1 million a year and the Department of Defence €2.8 million for the services they provide in transporting money.

However, the real cost of these services is estimated at €5 million for the Garda. The Department of Defence spends €7.2 million escorting cash for the banks and An Post.

The secretary general of the Department of Justice, Mr Tim Dalton, said he approached the banks last September for a larger contribution. They agreed to increase their contribution to the Garda to €3 million.

Mr Dalton said this was not "the end of the story" and the Department hoped to reach agreement on stepped increases in future years. It was also looking at the situation with An Post, which makes no contribution and which was a very different organisation from the days when it only distributed social welfare payments.

He pointed out that the original decision to provide armed security was made by the Government in 1978, following a large robbery on a security van in Co Limerick.

The Government accepted that it should bear some of the costs because it had an interest in ensuring that large amounts of money didn't fall into the hands of criminals, he said.