Gardai ‘not charging enough for providing security at concerts’

It found that Gardai are not even being paid for their services by some promoters, with €3.6m in invoices outstanding at the end of last year. About one third of this had been invoiced prior to 2013, while bills amounting to €512,000 were owed since before 2019.

"By the end of June, the debt outstanding at year-end 2023 had fallen to €1.7m," the report says. "However, there was little movement on older balances."

Officials at the C&AG looked at a sample of 15 events that were policed by Gardai, including race meetings, League of Ireland football matches, music festivals and a blast supervision at a quarry in Galway.

"From the sample reviewed, two invoices remained outstanding at the end of June," the report says. "One of these related to a commercial event that took place more than 12 months before, and involved a substantial debt."

The 15 events that the C&AG's team examined included the Harry Styles concert at Slane Castle, where Gardai charged €207,180 but the estimated actual cost was €274,166 or €66,986 more.

In June 2022, Gardai introduced a flat rate of €45 per hour for providing security at events, which applied to all ranks. However the C&AG found "no evidence" that Garda management estimated the actual costs incurred in policing events to check if the rate was appropriate.

"Furthermore, the €45 flat rate does not reflect additional overtime rates or allowances payable for duty on Sundays or bank holidays," the report says. "The flat rate charge also has not been revised to take account of pay increases awarded since April 2023.

"Consequently the charge rate reflects an assumed cost rather than the actual costs. If the charges levied in respect of policing events are less than the costs incurred, the unrecovered portion is ultimately funded by the Exchequer."

The Gardai have also introduced a methodology to score events in order to decide whether to give a fee abatement to organisers, taking into account if they are commercial or profit-driven.

However when the C&AG's examination team reviewed the records for five events where a reduced or no charge was applied, the Gardai were unable to provide a completed scoring matrix.

In one case, the charge was waived because the event was considered to be a "charity" one. However there was an entry fee for participants, and the income generated was kept by the organising body, which was not a registered charity.

"The examination found that there is no requirement in the current procedure document to verify the charitable status of event organisers, when deciding to waive the fee," the report says.

It points out that when the Gardai reduce or waive a fee for policing an event, the cost of providing the service is then borne by the Exchequer.

The report also found that for larger commercial events, the hours that Gardai actually spent on the job "often exceeded" the initial estimate they had budgeted for.

Among the other 15 events looked at by the C&AG were the Body and Soul Festival at Westmeath, where the Gardai charged €37,824 but the estimated actual cost of policing the event was €45,629.

Gardai charged €24,912 for policing the Galway Races festival, when the estimated actual costs was almost €24,000 more at €48,795.

The Run in the Dark charity event got a total abatement of fees, with an estimated cost of €6,459, while the New Year's festival in Dublin and the Snoop Dogg concert, also in Dublin, got a 50pc abatement, as did the Christmas festival of racing in Limerick.