After a great deal of public unease and official procrastination, the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, has finally published a Bill to regulate the private security industry. For the first time, private investigators, security guards, bouncers, employers and consultants, and a range of security companies involved in supplying and installing safes, locks, alarms and other equipment, and providing armoured car services, will be licensed, regulated and supervised by a new authority. Individuals and companies will have to pass a "fitness to practice" test. They will have to secure a licence before offering their services to the public or face fines or imprisonment. The new authority will also provide an avenue of redress for citizens who feel they have been defrauded or maltreated by licence holders.
Ireland is one of a few European countries that do not yet have such legislation. Three years ago, an official consultative group expressed concern over the free-for-all that existed within the private security sector in relation to untrained staff, disreputable companies, poor conditions of employment and the possible involvement in the sector of subversive and criminal organisations. Last year, the killing of INLA member, Nicky O'Hare, in Dundalk, highlighted the involvement of paramilitaries. The dead man had operated an extensive door security business, using bouncers. Many long-established private security companies have attempted to raise standards through self-regulation in recent years. They encouraged successive governments to appoint a statutory authority as the industry grew rapidly. The latest estimate by the Department of Justice is that 400 security companies now exist, employing 15,000 full-time workers. Representative bodies within the industry have welcomed the initiative by Mr O'Donoghue and they envisage that undesirable elements will be gradually excluded through the new mechanisms.
The Bill will establish a Private Security Authority to control and supervise individuals and firms, to issue identity cards to licensees and to improve standards within the sector. A publicly-accessible register of licence holders will be maintained, training standards will be set and a system of investigation and adjudication of complaints will be established. Bouncers will be required to carry identity cards at all time and, before a licence to provide security services is granted to an individual or a company, an investigation may be undertaken into an applicant's character, financial position and competence. The authority may request a senior member of the Garda to provide any information in relation to a criminal record and may refuse, or withdraw, a licence where it finds an individual is not "a fit and proper person to provide a security service". The measure gives effect to the principal recommendations made by the consultative group three years ago. It is broadly in line with a Fine Gael Private Members' Bill that was rejected by the Coalition Government a year ago. It spite of such delays and political game-playing, however, the Bill should be welcomed. Early passage and implementation of the legislation must now become a Government priority.