The Irish economy may be in debt forever to the IMF and Europe but money will still have to be found to fund and police the visits of the Queen and President Obama.

According to the head of the Irish Police Representative Association, around $36 million dollars will be needed to cover the cost of security for the two state visits, which will come out of the $2 billion police budget allocated for 2011.

Both the Queen and Barack Obama are due to make separate visits to the Republic of Ireland next month.

"We all know this country is on its knees in terms of the fiscal difficulties, but we have two very important heads of government coming here and we must ensure the visits are properly policed", PJ Stone, the general secretary for the organisation which represents frontline police officers, told UTV News.

"I don't think the Irish Police force will be in a position to police those events given the resources that currently exist if there is not a separate budget for this venture", he added.

The Queen will visit Ireland from Tuesday 17 May to Friday 20 May. No official date for President Obama's visit has yet been announced but it is expected to be late May.