Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The Minister utterly condemns what they do. He welcomes the opportunity initiated by Deputy Costello to state the present position regarding standards within the cash-in-transit industry, and the moves that have been and are being made to ensure that such incidents will not succeed in the future.

Last year the Minister called on the main players in the cash-in-transit sector of the industry, which included the financial institutions, security companies, the Garda Síochána and the Central Bank, to draw up an agreement on a voluntary basis for handling cash deliveries in a safe, secure and efficient manner. The agreement was signed last June and the Minister understands that progress towards implementation had been made in the course of the past year. This code of practice represented a major step forward in this area and set out an integrated end-to-end solution for major cash movements in the State.

On Monday, in the wake of the recent robberies, the Minister met Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy and the chief executive of the Private Security Authority, Geraldine Larkin. While noting that progress has been made in terms of implementing the code of practice, the Minister expressed his deep concern that recent robberies highlighted the fact that procedures within the code appeared to have been flouted by security companies. The Minister finds these lapses in standards completely unacceptable. These incidents raise serious questions about how the cash-in-transit business is to be managed and regulated in the future. Having heard the Garda Commissioner's report on these recent incidents, it is clear to the Minister that a voluntary code, which encompasses standards of safety and good practice, is not working.

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