Cash in transit companies will have to comply with a compulsory licensing scheme or be put out of business, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell warned today.
Speaking this evening after meetings with the Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy and the Chief Executive of the Private Security Authority, Geraldine Larkin, Minister McDowell said it was clear that in a number of cash-in-transit robberies there has been a "radical departure from ordinary standards of safety and good practice".
"These standards the industry agreed to put in place on a voluntary basis, in an agreement with me made last year," he said.
Minister McDowell described these lapses in standards as "completely unacceptable", "inexcusable" and said they raised "serious questions about how the cash in transit industry is to be managed in the future."
As a result Ms Larkin has informed Mr McDowell that she will recommend to the Private Security Authority, that mandatory licensing be brought in at the earliest date possible.
Although Minister McDowell expressed regret at this step: "I have willingly gone along with a voluntary arrangement on the assumption that everyone would do their level best to introduce decent standards of safety and security... I like to do business by consensus."
He added: "Unfortunately in a number of different ways and a number of instances it is proven that this degree of trust is not reciprocated."
He pointed out that under existing private security legislation mandatory licensing is provided for. "It was intended to bring it in at the end of a voluntary compliance period where the industry would be given the time to bring its standards up to the requisite approved standards."
However, due to "radical lapses in safety and security standards" the Private Security Authority now has the has the power to introduce a system of mandatory licensing and those who don't comply will be in danger of forfeiting their licenses and put out of the business.
Minister McDowell outlined two specific cases which he regarded as "radical lapses" in these standards.
In one case, "contrary to all agreed practices, large amounts of money were put in sacks on the floor of the van which was equipped with safe equipment that would have prevented the money being there - if it had been properly operated. As a result the van was smashed into and the money was just there for the taking," he said.
And in another case "it would appear a van with huge sums of money in it was actually left unattended completely by the staff who were operating it."
He said he was constrained by the interests of safety of people who work in the industry from revealing more details "but it is not a pretty picture."
Although he placed the blame in relation to security procedures, such as whether equipment installed in the vans in actually used, firmly at the feet of the of the cash in transit companies he said banks also held some responsibility.
"Suffice to say that any bank which retains any security company to do with the cash in transit business - if that company is not employing even moderately safe procedures then that bank has to bear a considerable portion of responsibility," he said.
Minister McDowell concluded that, in the cash in transit industry, it is "no longer possible for the Irish State and Irish society to rely on voluntary agreements."