Debate contribution: Public Order: Policing Costs
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 19 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Public Order: Policing Costs
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5795837
Read the official Assembly record
Text
As I said in answer to Mr Chambers, it stands at around £5·5 million, of which around £1·25 million is the mutual aid cost, with the remainder being a mixture of overtime and other expenses. There will, of course, be legal bills and other things that will come in over the coming months, all of which will come out of the same budget. People seem to think that we have a magic money pot sitting to the side in which we keep money to pay for officers to police parading disputes, money for the courts and money for all the other things and that is separate from the money that pays for everyday policing: that is not the case. Every time we, as a society, end up with such confrontations, we draw on police resources that would otherwise be spent on other things. People should therefore be circumspect in their approach to such issues. They should think about the costs and ask themselves whether such things are worth the price being paid not just in cash terms but by victims of crime, who are waiting to have those crimes investigated by the police and their cases completed and forwarded to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS), which needs those officers to be in court giving evidence as witnesses, as well as all the other people who will have been affected. It goes far beyond the bounds of Drumcree and Garvaghy Road.
240 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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