New Garda spending rules to follow booking of nearly €250,000 worth of unused hotel rooms

New spending controls and oversight for policing of large-scale events are being introduced following controversy over unused accommodation booked for officers working at the 2024 Uefa Europa League final, Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly is expected to tell an Oireachtas committee this week.In an opening statement to the Oireachtas Committee of Public Accounts, it is anticipated that Kelly will outline how the policing operation for the May 2024 football final in Dublin 4 provided “important organisational learning”. He will say that reviews carried out subsequently “resulted in a number of changes to how major events are managed”.Kelly is likely to be questioned at Thursday’s hearing about findings by the Comptroller and Auditor General that An Garda Síochána spent €590,000 on hotel accommodation over three nights for members policing the match. The report maintained that the bill included €248,500 on accommodation that was never used.The comptroller’s report said that a month before the match the force had 727 rooms booked, with a potential occupancy of 1,454 members, but the Garda Representative Association had complained that shared rooms were unsatisfactory. READ MOREThe report also found 13 Garda members were assigned two rooms in the same hotel, and 11 were assigned two hotel rooms in two different hotels.Kelly is expected to say that reviews subsequently carried out showed the force had “strengthened the organisational framework governing their planning and command and introduced improved technology to support resource and duty planning”.“Now ... where organisational booking of accommodation is required, this will operate on an exceptional basis and subject to senior-level approval, documented justification, oversight and controls,” he will say. “We have also developed an event-costing template to strengthen financial planning for big events, while work continues to further strengthen our approach to debriefing and organisational learning.”Kelly is also likely to tell the committee that Garda strength is approaching its highest level ever. Its fleet of vehicles is already the largest it has ever had. “We have continued to increase Garda numbers during 2026 and I am looking forward to the next group of approximately 200 Garda trainees passing out later this month, which should see us have the highest number of gardaí in the history of the State. We are highly ambitious in this regard and want to meet (and exceed) the Government target of recruiting 5,000 gardaí by 2030,” he is to say. The committee will be told that during 2025, 407 vehicles were allocated, bringing the Garda fleet to 3,650, including approximately 300 electric vehicles. There has been investment in new aeroplanes, helicopters, an armoured vehicle for emergency and armed response units, equipment for public order units and rigid hull inflatable boats for the water unit.Separately, a briefing document submitted by the force to the committee maintains there was a 167 per cent increase in spending on the witness security programme last year to €1.2 million. The report says this is a demand-led programme and there was a rise in the number of requests for such services.Receipts from fixed charges issued on foot of evidence from safety cameras increased by 30 per cent to €23.425 million last year. That was due to an increase in contracted hours of the service providers, together with additional cameras, the briefing document states.