Tim O'Malley (Limerick East, Progressive Democrats)

This amendment raises the interesting issue of the eligibility of persons convicted of serious crimes to get licences to provide security services. The 1997 consultative group report recommended that an application to hold a licence should be refused outright by the authority if the applicant had been convicted of a range of listed serious offences. These include murder, rape or sexual assault, armed robbery, drug trafficking or other offences carrying a sentence of more than ten years in jail. The group recommended a ten year gap before granting a licence to persons convicted of a range of other offences.

The Bill we are discussing does not incorporate the detailed and prescriptive approach recommended by the consultative group and now contained in the amendment. Instead it requires the authority to consider each application on its merits. Section 35 provides that an applicant for a licence and any licensee seeking a renewal who has been convicted of an offence or against whom proceedings for an offence are pending shall notify the authority of the conviction or proceedings in a prescribed manner. For its part, the authority may, having considered the applicant's character and competence, grant a licence or refuse to grant a licence if it considers that the applicant is not a fit and proper person to provide a security service. That is included in section 22. In arriving at its decision, the authority may require verification of information provided by the applicant by affidavit or may require the applicant to supply a certificate from a member of the Garda not below the rank of superintendent. Furthermore, the authority may request the Garda Commissioner to provide any information required for the due performance of its functions with regard to any applicant for a licence or any licensee.

The authority will seek to strike an appropriate balance by operating the licensing system in the public interest and in the best interests of the private security industry while at the same time recognising an individual's right to earn a living and support himself or herself and to provide for dependants. It is also relevant in this context that the membership of the authority will include a practising barrister or solicitor of not less than five years' standing and a representative of the Garda not below the rank of assistant commissioner. In the circumstances, I am not disposed to accept the amendment.