An Garda Síochána to buy €4m worth of ammunition over next five years

The force has tendered for a 60-month ammunition contract for the delivery of more than 1.5 million bullets on an annual basis. File picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

An Garda Síochána is to spend €4m on millions of rounds of ammunition for its firearm stores over the next five years.

The force has tendered for a 60-month ammunition contract for the delivery of more than 1.5 million bullets on an annual basis.

While uniformed gardaí go unarmed generally, the force’s specialist regional firearms component, the Armed Support Unit, operates nationwide when necessary. Such units are tasked with supporting local gardaí in incidents in which firearms or other weapons are in use.

An Garda Síochána said that its “objective” in publishing the tender is “to ensure the most economical and best quality ammunition” for its firearm stores section at Garda HQ in Phoenix Park.

To that end, the tender seeks to procure one million rounds of 9mm, full metal jacket ammunition per annum for specific Sig Pistol and Walther P99 firearms.

A further minimum 500,000 rounds per year of ammunition is required for the Heckler & Koch MP7 submachine gun, while an additional 50,000 are to be procured for the heavy-duty Heckler & Koch 416 assault rifle.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

The tender calls for extensive firearms testing of the ammunition supplied, to the tune of 5,000 rounds apiece for each of the weapons detailed. That testing is to take place at the winning contractor’s factory space at no additional cost to An Garda Síochána, the tender stipulates.

The relevant tests include bullet velocity, accuracy, and action time regarding the relevant ammunition. Gardaí said that the annual ammunition delivery is to be made ideally in just one batch each year, adding that additional rounds may be required above and beyond the minimum annual delivery amount.

Armed Support Unit members undergo training over a 13-week period, including modules in critical incident response, tactical deployment, conflict resolution, and negotiation techniques. There are roughly 200 officers in the unit in Ireland, with the largest of the six units having more than 60 members in Dublin.

The unit was most recently utilised this month as part of a major cross-division operation targeting burglaries, drug trafficking and other criminal activities nationwide, with more than 150 gardaí in total deployed. Since its inception in 2008, the unit has been deployed as a key facet of support in major public order incidents such as the Dublin riots on Parnell Square in November 2023.

The use of the unit has sometimes been controversial. The shooting dead of George Nkencho by a member in Blanchardstown in December 2020 led to a multi-year investigation by the Garda Ombudsman, with the Director of Public Prosecutions eventually deciding not to bring a prosecution against the officer last April.