IRELAND’S MAIN SPORTING associations have paid An Garda Síochana well in excess of three-quarters of a million euro to police its events this year.

Responding to a parliamentary question from Independent Tommy Broughan, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan provided the figures for the year to October.

Here is a breakdown of the costs:

• FAI – €229,937
• IRFU – €186,226
• GAA – €420,762

In all, that amounts to €838,925 paid to the gardaí to cover the cost of policing sporting events, which was actually down from €1,046,072 last year.

These costs outlined here, however, do not factor into account the cost of policing major events towards in the last two months of the year, including the autumn rugby internationals and the Irish football team’s hopes of reaching next summer’s World Cup being cruelly dismantled by the Danes at the Aviva Stadium.

Minister Flanagan said: “I am informed by the garda authorities that the cost to the event holder is determined by the number of garda personnel deployed and that the operational plan for a particular event is formulated by local garda management.

The objective of charging is to recover the cost of providing the police services. I am further informed that An Garda Síochána does not seek to recover its costs for charitable events or for national public events such as policing the St Patrick’s Day parade which are funded by the public purse.

With the same number of games each year, the cost of policing rugby games was broadly similar to last year.

Policing Irish football games was actually a lot cheaper, costing only €110,726 last year.

The cost of policing GAA matches, however, was much for expensive in 2016, with €760,540 paid to gardaí.

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