Policing of protests outside Leinster House incurred costs of €209,000 in year to November 22nd

About €209,000 was spent on policing protests outside Leinster House over 11 months in 2023 with the vast majority of the spending incurred towards the end of the year, newly released records show.

Of the 13 protests that saw costs incurred by the Garda, 12 happened between September and November.

This includes the response to disturbances outside Leinster House on September 20th, the Dáil’s first day back after the summer recess.

The protests that day included a mock gallows and led to some politicians requiring Garda assistance to enter the Houses of the Oireachtas complex.

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In an interview with the Irish Times, Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl called it an “unprecedented event” where Oireachtas staff and “the pretty hard-nosed politicians themselves were the subject of attack and intimidation of a sort that we’ve never ever seen here before and never want to see again”.

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Newly released Garda records relating to overtime show costs for policing protests at Leinster House came to €88,054 up to November 22nd in 2023. Travel and subsistence costs for the same period amounted to €23,101.

Meanwhile, further costs related to traffic management, the hiring of barriers and catering for Garda members came to €97,757.

Overall, the spend was €208,912.

This does not include expenditure incurred following the Dublin riot on November 23rd, after which there were closures of Kildare Street and barriers put up outside Leinster House for a number of days.

Just one rally where Garda expenditure took place – a cost-of-living protest in April – was in the first part of 2023.

The next one was on September 16th, when there were rival demonstrations over trans rights that passed off without incident.

Costs were incurred on the day the Dáil reopened as well as Budget Day as well as four other demonstrations across September, October and November, labelled “Dáil Protest” in the records.

One of these was an anti-immigration protest on November 9th.

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There were three “Stand With Palestine” protests in the wake of the outbreak of war in the Middle East, one “Protect Irish Neutrality” rally and another demonstration on November 11th labelled “Dublin protest”.

A Garda spokeswoman said: “An Garda Síochána has always and continues to provide a co-ordinated and consistent approach across the DMR [Dublin Metropolitan Region] to all protests.”

This is aimed at “ensuring an effective policing response… at both impromptu protests and where there is prior intelligence indicating that protests will take place”.

She added: “The operational objective of gardaí in the DMR in providing a policing response concerning any protest is to ensure that the rights of all concerned are upheld and that the safety of the public is maintained at all times.”

On the increased spending late in the tail-end of the year, the spokeswoman said: “The fourth quarter of 2023 has seen an increase in demonstrations… associated with the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine.”

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