Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 212: To ask the Minister for Defence the number of occasions in which military escorts have been provided for cash in transit consignments; the cost involved; the extent to which financial institutions have paid for the services in each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24267/06]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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I had a number of discussions with the Irish Bankers Federation (IBF) in relation to this matter last year, with a view to increasing the level of contribution by the Banks in respect of the costs incurred by the Department in the provision of Cash Escorts. Following detailed and intensive discussions between officials of the IBF, the member Banks and the Department, a detailed formal agreement was signed on 11 May, 2005.

This agreement, which is for a 5 year period, provides that the banks will pay the total actual costs incurred by the Defence Forces in the provision of cash escorts. Costs in respect of each 12 month period to end-December, will be paid the following year on or before the 1st June. This is to allow for the compilation of returns from the brigades and allocation of costs following the year-end. The first payment under the new system was paid on 1 June 2006. I agreed, at the bank's request, to defer the first payment to that date to meet the banks budgeting and accounting timeframe.

In return for my agreement to this deferral, a transitional payment of €1 million, payable before the end of 2005, was negotiated as part of the overall agreement. Therefore in 2005 the banks made their annual payment of €2.86m plus the additional €1m making a total contribution of €3.86m. A figure of €6.03 million was paid in 2006. The amount to be paid in 2007 (costs for 2006) will not be available until early 2007.

Prior to this initiative it had been the case that an annual contribution of €2.86m was being paid by the banks to my Department in respect of the provision of cash escorts since 1995. This figure was set by the Department of Finance in the 1995 budget and had not been altered since. The contribution from the Banks was designed to part-cover the total costs to the State of providing cash escorts. At that time, the contribution covered approximately 72% of the total cost arising to the Defence Forces. Based on annual costings by the Department, the relative level of the contribution had fallen in real terms over the years to the situation where it was only covering 43% of the total costs.

The total cost in respect of the provision by the Defence Forces of assistance to the Garda Síochána in protecting movements of cash for the years 2001 to 2005 is contained in the table.

Pay accounts for about 54% of the total costs of providing cash escorts. The non-pay costs include Security Duty Allowance (7%), Subsistence(8%), Transport (28%), and Aerial Surveillance(3%).