Garda Headquarters paid more than €2.4 million on hiring external consultants to provide a range of services over the past three years, according to records released under freedom of information legislation.
The documents showed that payments made by An Garda Siochana (AGS) to private consultants have increased year on year since 2021, when almost €600,000 was spent on such services. This figure increased to €836,000 in 2022 and grew to just over €1 million last year. The services provided spanned legal consultancy support, procurement services, research, and support for human resources and development.
Brendan O’Connor, president of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), said it had noted reduced consultation with its members and that the figures indicated a rush to adopt practices that were “incompatible with the unique circumstances” of policing.
“While the GRA recognises the role of external consultancy spend in most public and private organisations, the figures disclosed show significant accelerated expenditure,” O’Connor said.
The biggest beneficiary from the spending was Ipsos Behaviour and Attitudes (B&A) Limited, a market research company, which conducted the garda’s annual public attitudes survey at a cost of €600,000, or €200,000 a year. The survey has an annual interview sample size of 7,600 respondents.
In a statement, a garda spokesman said the survey was used to gather views and public perceptions in respect of policing in Ireland.
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“It provides key outcome measures for AGS in terms of assessing the satisfaction of communities with the service we provide and also for the experiences of the service received by victims of crime. The survey is nationally representative on the basis of sex, age, social class and nationality … Additional surveys are also conducted with 16 and 17-year-olds to ascertain their views,” the spokesman said.
O’Connor said he favoured cutting the budget allocated to consultants by placing a greater emphasis on the “feedback, expertise and observations” of frontline gardai to bring the challenges they face into sharper focus.
“The members we represent have to make decisions and are accountable for them, it could be argued that organisations relying on third-party reports and expertise are somewhat protecting individuals already paid by the taxpayer to make those decisions,” he added.
Ipsos B&A said the nationwide interviewing process was quota-controlled and spanned all 19 garda divisions.
“Anonymised data was then delivered for reporting … As part of the programme, AGS received quarterly and annual returns. All data provided to AGS for analysis. In addition, there was regular engagement with An Garda Siochana’s research unit to ensure the survey is delivered on target and to mitigate against any issues,” a spokesman said.
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The Communications Clinic, a Dublin-based public relations company, was the second biggest recipient of money paid by Garda HQ to consultancies over the past three years for the provision of services that included internal communications support during the pandemic.
Although the company did not appear in the 2023 record, it was paid a total of €350,000 for the period of 2021-22.
“We continue to work with An Garda Siochana,” a spokesman said in a statement.
Crowleys DFK, an accounting, tax and business adviser, pocketed the largest fee paid to any consultancy last year, receiving €207,000. The company did not respond to a request for comment last week.
The garda budget for 2023 was €2.14 billion.
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A spokesman for the force added that, over the past number of years, gardai had been implementing the government policing reform programme, which he described as the biggest reform in its history.
“A significant proportion of the overall annual spend was on getting feedback from the public through our quarterly public attitudes survey. The findings of these surveys are used to improve the service we provide locally and nationally. Such spending is kept under regular review,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman also clarified that Garda HQ continued to contract the services of the Communications Clinic and paid the company a reduced fee of €42,000 last year, explaining that it was no longer listed as an external consultancy following the pandemic.
“Following a review in 2023, the decision was made that the services provided by the Communications Clinic did not meet the definition of consultancy services as per the definition from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. This was because the Communications Clinic provides a content service to An Garda Siochana — it does not provide communications advice to An Garda Siochana.”
