Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, to the House. It is time that the operation of the Private Security Authority, PSA, be reviewed internally and by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to determine whether it is operating effectively.

Ireland was the last country in the EU to provide a licensing system for the private security industry. The legislation was passed in 2005 and the PSA was established in 2007. I was spokesman on justice at the time and there were vague estimates of the number of operatives in the sector. Depending on who one met in the industry, the number varied from 12,000 to approximately 18,000. After two years in operation, the PSA has licensed 22,000 individuals as private security guards, night club bouncers, hotel and pub doormen, private investigators, installers of security equipment, etc. Clearly, there is a large private security sector. With the Garda at 15,000 personnel and an Army of 10,000, the private sector rivals the public security forces.

It was unacceptable that the Garda and the Army should have highly trained, qualified and regulated personnel whereas those in the private sector needed no training, qualification or regulation and little supervision. The situation needed to be addressed, but the manner in which that has been done has retained many of the problems. The fact that more than one third of those who have been licensed in the past two years were foreign nationals is a matter of concern because all they have to do is present a foreign criminal record certificate. The PSA made no contact with embassies or the licences' issuing authorities. Nor did it ask the Garda to perform background or Interpol checks. Some 7,400 of the licences came from foreign national sources. This is an unsatisfactory situation. While every foreign national is entitled to apply, people should be obliged to be vetted in a robust fashion.

It is simple for people of parliamentary groups, ex-special forces personnel or other various unsavoury and unsuitable people to acquire Irish private security licences. This is not good enough. Therefore, it is time to review the criteria and procedures of the PSA. The Garda and Interpol must have a role in ensuring that people who interface with Irish people through the private security industry are of the highest calibre irrespective of whether they are Irish or foreign nationals.

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