Gardaí spent €250k on unused hotel rooms during Europa League final
Gardaí spent hundreds of thousands of euros on unused accommodation during the policing of the Europa League final in Dublin last year.
A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General on the costs of policing the game found that An Garda Síochána spent €590,000 booking hotel rooms ahead of the May 2024 final.
Just over 40 per cent (€248,500) related to hotel rooms that were unused by garda personnel.
As reported by the Irish Examiner, An Garda Síochána booked 786 rooms with 25 different accommodation providers during the event.
But 246 of these rooms had to be cancelled, and nearly 30 per cent of beds were unoccupied during the event.
The report found that An Garda Síochána booked rooms before instructing members to assess demand, leading to an oversupply. Late submissions for accommodation requests further compounded the issue.
The match was also designated an "extraordinary event", with restricted leave for staff, resulting in almost €5 million in overtime payments.
The total cost of the event amounted to €7.8 million - all funded by the state.
The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General says it also identified potential overpayments for travel claims for the event.
The report said that "An Garda Síochána has stated that internal audit will review this information and all overpayments substantiated will be recouped."
Speaking on Newstalk, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Sinn Féin's John Brady, said it's not an isolated incident:
"We see a pattern here right across multiple agencies, leading to the wastage of millions of euros of taxpayers' money. So what went down in An Garda Síochána is not out of the norm, which is absolutely scandalous."
