Banks to pay 90% garda escort costs

BANKS are to pay 90% of the total cost of garda cash escorts under a new agreement to be signed in the coming weeks.

The Department of Justice is also, in conjunction with the Irish Payments Services Organisation (IPSO), examining ways of reducing the high reliance on cash in Ireland which, in turn, would curtail opportunities for robberies.

The new agreement on the financing of garda escorts followed discussions between the Department of Justice and the Irish Bankers Federation (IBF).

The agreement will apply in a transitional arrangement to last year and will apply in full from this year on.

Since 2003, the contribution from banks for garda escorts has been set at €3 million.

This amount has not risen, despite a sharp increase in the number of escorts.

“In the face of increasing numbers of escorts and a corresponding increase in the cost of providing these, the department has been in negotiations with the Irish Bankers Federation with a view to agreeing a deal whereby a proportion of the actual costs for a given year will be reimbursed by the banks as opposed to the set figure of €3m which is paid regardless of the amount escorts actually cost,” said a department spokeswoman.

Gardaí estimate that the total cost of bank escorts in 2005 was around €6m, twice the actual contribution from the bank industry.

The spokeswoman for the department said an agreement in principle had been reached with the IBF and that memorandum of understanding would be signed in the coming weeks.

“This will see reimbursement by the banks of 90% of the costs of pay, supervision, fuel, transport and subsistence.

“The agreement will be adopted for five years, with the possibility of being extended beyond this time.”

It’s understood the cost of garda escorts will fall once full “end-to-end” solutions are put in place by the bank and security industries, in which cash accessed during transportation would be destroyed. Such a system would reduce the need for garda escorts.

Under an agreement signed in 2005, the banks currently contribute 100% of the costs incurred by the army, which also provides cash escorts. The bill for army escorts in 2005 was €6m. Prior to that, banks only paid €2.86m.

The total cost of cash escorts are estimated to be around €12m, of which banks will pay around €11m. In 2005, AIB, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB earned profits totalling €4 billion.