Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is widespread public concern and anger at the manner in which a family was evicted from its home near Strokestown in County Roscommon last week. The video footage of the incident is shocking, to say the least. It shows a private security firm being given free rein to do as it pleased in evicting a family from its home. It is appalling that any family would be subjected to the type of treatment visited on this family last Tuesday. It was an ordeal of thuggery inflicted by a group of men acting on behalf of a financial institution while gardaí watched. That is of significant concern to right-thinking people. What happened in County Roscommon was a disgrace and it was unjustified. It brought to mind scenes from our past when families were evicted and thrown onto the side of the road.

The shocking reality is that those undertaking this type of act on behalf of banks and vulture funds are not authorised or regulated and are not covered by the Private Security Services Act. That was confirmed to my colleague, Deputy Ó Laoghaire, by the Private Security Authority. it is time for a policy shift away from satisfying the demands of banks and towards supporting families and communities. Pressure must be brought to bear on the financial institutions using these outfits to turf people out of their homes. They cannot simply shrug their shoulders and pass this off and neither can the Taoiseach. It is extraordinary that we expect door staff or shop security staff to be regulated and comply with the highest standards but that does not apply to these individuals. It is extraordinary that a person fitting a lock to a front door must be regulated but these henchmen and enforcers for the banks can ram down an elderly citizen's door and drag him from his home by the ears without regulation, authorisation or oversight.

The lack of accountability is shocking. Those who are enforcing evictions and acting in a violent and abusive way need to be held to account. There is an urgent need for regulation in this area and it can be done quickly by amending the Private Security Services Act by adding a new category of security personnel to come within the remit of the Act and the scope of the Private Security Authority. This morning my colleague Deputy Ó Laoghaire published legislation to achieve this and it needs to be achieved now. We need to ensure we will not see a repeat of the incidents and nonsense we saw on Frederick Street in Dublin in September where people were wearing balaclavas, or the incidents in Roscommon last week and those that followed it. Will the Taoiseach support the legislation we have published today to ensure these bank enforcers can no longer operate without oversight, authority and regulation which have not applied heretofore?

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