Press release
Minister McEntee publishes Private Security Authority Annual Report and Financial Statements for 2022
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Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has today published the Annual Report of the Private Security Authority along with the Financial Statements for 2022.
The Private Security Authority (PSA) is the statutory body with responsibility for licensing and regulating the private security industry in Ireland. The PSA was established following the passing of the Private Security Services Act in 2004 and is an independent body under the aegis of the Department of Justice. The PSA started licencing security contractors in 2006 and security employees in 2007 and at the end of 2022 was responsible for regulating 1,443 licensed contractors and 32,038 licensed individuals.
The 2022 Annual Report notes a number of achievements including the expansion of licensing to employees in the Event Security and Private Investigator sector and the publication of updated official standards across a range of industry sectors.
Once the public health restrictions were lifted in 2022, in-person inspection and enforcement activities returned to normal, which enabled the PSA to undertake 150 contractor inspections and 204 unannounced compliance inspections on licensed premises, retail outlets and other businesses in 2022 to ensure compliance with employee licensing.
Speaking on publishing the report, Minister McEntee said:
“One of my key priorities as Minister for Justice is reducing crime and keeping communities safe. As we all know this requires a whole of system approach within which the staff of the Private Security Authority play an important role. The work they do gives people confidence in a wide range of security services, from the person installing a security system to the person working on the door of a nightclub.
"As committed in 2022 the PSA continued to expand and strengthen the regulatory environment through expanding licensing to employees in the Event Security and Private Investigator sectors. This is extremely valuable as it helps to create safe spaces where we can all have greater confidence.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Chief Executive Paul Scallan, Mr Richard O’Farrell, the Chairman of the PSA and the team at the PSA for their hard work, expertise and continued commitment to making our public and private spaces safer and to improving public confidence in the industry.”
The Annual report notes that the PSA Board, which was appointed in March 2022 for a term of four years published the Strategic Plan for 2023 – 2025 which sets out the plan to work with the industry to look at ways of supporting female participation in the security sector and ways to continue to promote respect, diversity and inclusion in the security industry.
Paul Scallan, Chief Executive of the Private Security Authority commented:
“In the year that saw the ending of pandemic restrictions and the return of large sporting, music and other public events, it was timely that we extended licensing to Event Security employees. During the year we also launched licensing for Private Investigator employees, prepared the groundwork for the licensing of Enforcement Guards and introduced new training courses for Door Supervisors and Security Guards.
"The licensed industry continued to grow in 2022 with turnover increasing by 7% to €963 million. The growth of the industry created recruitment challenges as a competitive economy vied with the industry for scarce resources. In this regard, the industry was not helped by the court proceedings that halted the new employment regulation order.
"Looking ahead, we launched a new Strategic Plan to take us to 2025 by which time we should have completed our licensing programme. We look forward to continued engagement with our licence holders and other partners in pursuit of our mandate to protect the public and improve standards within the private security industry.”
In 2022 the PSA have had five successful prosecutions against people acting in breach of the licensing regime and commenced 870 compliance cases.
The PSA received 15,789 individual licence applications during the year, consisting of 6,395 renewals and 8,137 first time applications, together with a further 1,257 applications which were rejected. Rejected applications accounted for 8% of all applications, up slightly from 7% in 2021.
78 employee applications were refused in 2022, up from 62 in 2021. The main reasons for refusing applications were: failure to participate in the Garda vetting process or the result of convictions disclosed following Garda vetting.
Turnover for the industry increased from €903 million to €963 million in 2022.
In December 2022 a new training course for the Door Supervisor and Security Guarding sectors was introduced, to replace the course that had been used since licensing of the sectors commenced in 2006.
The Electronic Security sectors comprising of Access Control, CCTV and Intruder Alarm contractors account for 61% of business licence holders. Locksmiths are the next largest group (12%), followed by Security Guard (Static) at 10%.
In terms of turnover, the Security Guard (Static) sector accounts for 50% of industry turnover while the Electronic Security Sector accounts for 31% and Locksmiths 2%.
The PSA can be contacted at info@psa-gov.ie