Minister Shatter opens Private Security Conference in Dublin Castle
Mr Alan Shatter, T.D. , Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, has opened a conference this morning in Dublin Castle on ‘Regulating The Private Security Industry -The Experiences So Far – The Lessons For The Future’.
In his opening address the Minister acknowledged the key contribution that private security makes in safeguarding the public and protecting goods worth billions of euros and recognised the transformation that the industry had undergone since regulation was introduced.
There are over 730 licensed private security contractors in Ireland employing over 19,000 people with several thousand more employed as in-house security by businesses throughtout the country. The conference is being hosted by the Private Security Authority, the security industry regulator and is being attended by security employers, employee representatives, purchasers of security, An Garda Siochana, and other industry stakeholders. The focus of the conference is on the lessons learned from 6 years of regulation and developing strategies for the future.
The Minister was welcomed to the conference by the Chairman of the Private Security Authority (PSA), Mr Ronan King, who spoke of the future challenges and opportunities that the private security industry faced. He said the success of regulation was the result of the partnership developed between the PSA and the private security industry and that the conference offered an opportunity to improve regulation for the future.
The conference also has an international focus with contributions from Bill Butler, Chief Executive of the UK’s Security Industry Authority, David Hull, Senior Director of Global Security at eBay and Hilde De Clerk of the Confederation of European Security Services. The private security industry is a growth area across the EU despite the economic crisis. The growth is being driven by factors as diverse as an ageing population, the increased pressure for risk mitigation by businesses and their insurers and public budget constraints.
Minister Shatter also spoke of the future potential of the security industry in the context of the ongoing examination by the State of what it does itself and what services it should rely on the private sector to do. He stated that it was important for the private security industry to be in a position to benefit from any opportunity that arises.
The Minister announced that he had recently signed regulations which extended licensing to installers of CCTV and Access Control systems.