Cost of removing 'protestors' from outside former Debenhams store in Limerick revealed

THE cost of a major late-night policing operation outside the former Debenhams store in Limerick city centre is likely to be more than €6,000, it has been confirmed.

Details of last month’s operation, which involved 90 gardai from a number of different counties in Munster, were outlined at the quarterly meeting of the Limerick Joint Policing Committee.

In reply to questions submitted by Cllr John Costelloe, Chief Superintendent Gerard Roche said the operation “to assist” liquidators remove stock from the closed store was put in place on foot of a High Court Order.

“They were deployed at 12am (midnight) on the 18th of May. On arrival there were protestors blocking access to the loading bay at Debenhams by initially standing and then sitting at the gate. Following engagement with the protestors including advising them of the High Court order a direction was given to the Public Order Unit to remove the protesters who were blocking the gate to allow the liquidators access as directed in the High Court order,” he stated.

Major garda operation at former Debenhams store in Limerick

The meeting was told the operation involved uniformed and plain clothes gardai from the Limerick division who were assisted by a number of specialised units including from the Southern Region. This included a Public Order Unit, a Protest Removal Unit, two Armed Support Units and an Intelligence Gathering Unit.

A tow truck and 40 crowd control barriers were also deployed and temporary CCTV cameras were installed in the area during the operation.

Chief Supt Roche said there were no arrests but that 34 protestors were removed from the gateway to the loading bay.

“This majority were carried (away) in a safe manner by trained personnel attached to the Public Unit Unit. Each protestor was removed to a safe area on the Arthurs Quay plaza,” he said adding that further protests involved people lying or sitting on the road as an articulated truck arrived in the area.

In a detailed written reply to the questions, Chief Supt Roche confirmed that the garda role on the night was strictly to enforce the High Court Order and that no further powers were utilised.

“I want to emphasise the High Court Order was an order to the Commissioner who directed us to comply with it,” he told members adding that the High Court directed gardai to remove protestors from the premises (if necessary) or from blocking access to the premises.

“It said to remove them, it didn’t say to arrest them. It didn’t say to do anything else so we took that quite literally and we said we would do it in the safest way possible,” he explained.

Last Friday’s meeting, which took place virtually, was told there was no violence and that there were no injuries during the operation which lasted for a number of hours.

“The protestors were entitled to protest but they were removed, in accordance with the order, to a place of safety and then they were entitled to go and do what they did afterwards which included going back to that spot so we were very careful about our powers in this. We complied with the HIgh Court Order and we didn’t go any further,” said Chief Supt Roche.

A breakdown of the costs of the operation shows that overtime claimed to date totals €4,352.40 while the cost of subsistance and travel stands at €325.05.

The majority of the gardai involved in the operation were rostered to be on duty on the night to ensure the costs were kept to a minimum.

Ancillary costs, such as the hire of equipment and barriers is estimated to be €1,000. 

The final cost of the operation, which will be paid by An Garda Siochana, won’t be known until the end of this month.