Hard questions - Security bill at halting site

The cost of 24/7 security on a Cork City halting site, while it was being built, was €672,000.

The overall cost of the state-of-the-art facility was €5m. The security bill ran to around €1,800 a day and it included paying private security contractors and non-public overtime to maintain a round-the-clock garda presence at the €5m St Anthony’s Park scheme in Hollyhill, which is adjacent to an older, overcrowded halting site.

Almost as soon as work began on the project, gardaí had to be deployed over claims that construction and city council workers had been intimidated.