Proposed safety wardens would not have additional statutory powers to arrest, search or demand identification from people or to issue fines or enforce local authority bylaws, Dublin City Council has said.
The council released a statement on Wednesday after The Irish Times reported on plans being advanced to hire private security operatives to patrol the city centre following discussions between business representatives and Robert Watt’s new city regeneration authority.
Watt, the former Department of Health secretary general, has been appointed to lead the Dublin City Development Company, which is tasked with regenerating O’Connell Street and the surrounding area.
A tender is being drafted to contract a security firm who will provide “safety operatives” to complement Garda resources.
READ MORE
In its statement on Wednesday, the council said “safety on our streets should be our number one priority”.
The local authority said its project management unit has been conducting research and looking to other jurisdictions to “inform best practice” on options to improve safety on the city’s streets and provide additional supports to An Garda Síochána, residents and the business community.
“Dublin City Council has been liaising with An Garda Síochána, Department of Justice and the business community to develop concepts,” it said.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties had earlier questioned the legal basis of the plans and what the security operatives would be authorised to do.
[ Demand for drug treatment services has ‘exploded’, support group saysOpens in new window ]
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1, the organisation’s head of policy Olga Cronin said the “key question” was “what exactly the operatives will be authorised to do”.
The city council said: “Similar to safety warden schemes in operation in other jurisdictions, appointed safety wardens would not have additional statutory powers to arrest, demand identification, require a person to leave a public street, to search people, or issue fines/enforce local authority bylaws.”
[ ‘Significant’ traffic disruption in Dublin next week for EU presidency meetingsOpens in new window ]
It said a full report on the proposal is being finalised and the matter will be on the agenda of next month’s city council meeting. “The final decision on this will respect all appropriate decision-making protocols.”
Business lobby group DublinTown said it would “be happy to play a role in the implementation of a proposed pilot of a safety operative scheme”.
The organisation said it commissioned research last May on attitudes to Dublin city centre and this found that while “perceptions of the city centre in general are improving, safety remains a key challenge, particularly on the northside”.
Dublin Central Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon said it was a “harebrained proposal” that raised “multiple legal and civil liberty concerns”.
“It does not inspire confidence in the Government’s plans to regenerate the city centre if this is the best they can come up with to make people feel safer,” he said.
“Maintaining law and order on the streets of our capital is the role of gardaí – and gardaí only. We cannot allow the Government to abdicate responsibility for policing our streets by hiring private security staff.”
The Dublin City Development Company is being established to implement the recommendations of the Dublin City Taskforce, published two years ago in response to the November 2023 riots incited by far-right agitators following the stabbing of three children and a carer on Parnell Square.
The company has yet to be legally incorporated but an interim project management unit has been established, headed by Watt.
