Army chief warns over civil security duties

Army security duties like escorting prisoners and cash shipments to banks are putting a heavy toll on military resources, it was claimed today.

A senior army officer warned that the time and cost of such patrol operations could be better utilised in other Defence Force tasks.

Deputy Chief of Staff, Major General Sean Brennan said today: “There is no doubt that they present an overhead which impinges on other operations and training.

“There has been significant reductions in such operations in the last 18 months and these operations are constantly being reviewed.”

Major Gen Brennan made his comments in the current edition of SIGNAL, the official magazine of RACO – the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers.

However the veteran officer added that the Army would continue to take part in the operations “as long as the requirement exists”.

Latest figures show that up to 2,000 Army man-days are used up each month on escorting the delivery and collection of cash to banks around the country.

The annual cost to the Department of Defence is €6.64m but banks only pay €2.86m euro of this.

Defence minister Willie O’Dea recently called for financial institutions to increase their contribution given their high profits.

The Army is bound under the Constitution to carry out such Aid to the Civil Power (ATCP) duties to support gardaí.

They mainly include security patrols for cash shipments and transporting criminals and terrorists to and from prisons and courts.

Other ATCP tasks like manning border checkpoints and bomb disposal call-outs have been phased out since the Good Friday Agreement, which has also shrunk the Army’s size by 25%.