Providing State cars for Cabinet Ministers cost the Exchequer €2.9 million a year, the Minister for Justice informed the Dáil.
This works out at about €170,000 per Minister per Mercedes, according to Mr McDowell's written reply to Mr Sean Crowe (SF, Dublin South West). Ministers of State also have access to State cars but these costs were not listed.
The Minister also told the Sinn Féin deputy that the cost of policing anti-war marches for the past 15 months was €837,485. The demonstrations at Shannon cost €671,577 and those at Dublin cost €160,250.
Pay rise for gardai, prison officers
Benchmarking awards for gardaí and prison officers are expected to cost over €30 million next year, according to figures released by the Minister for Justice.
Mr McDowell told the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, in a written reply that some 11,906 gardaí would be covered by the award at a cost of over €25 million. This figure also included the rise for 1,178 civilian personnel.
The Department of Finance will fund the €5,726,000 for some 3,200 prison officers to cover "increased cost of pay and overtime" next year.