€672,000 spent on 24-hour security at Traveller housing project

The State spent just over €672,000 providing 24-hour security during the construction of a state-of-the-art Traveller housing project in Cork City, it has emerged.

The figure, the equivalent of about €1,800 a day, covered the cost of providing private security contractors and paying non-public overtime to maintain a round-the-clock garda presence at the €5m St Anthony’s Park group housing scheme in Hollyhill, on the northside of the city, which opened last June.

The security bill was described as “unprecedented” by the city council’s head of housing, Valerie O’Sullivan.