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It is amazing how many Authorities the Irish Government is producing, each one is created by an Act, and regulates some sector, and charges a fee in course.
Most recently the Private Security Authority has been in the news, it was established by the The Private Security Services Act, 2004.

The website of the Authority sounds nice, and in principle it is easy to agree with its agenda

It is the aim of the Authority to use the statutory regulation and enforcement powers provided to it to introduce positive, fundamental change in the industry. Our purpose is to instil customer and public confidence in this multi-stranded, multi-faceted business with the introduction, control and management of a comprehensive, standard driven, licensing system for all individuals and companies involved in the industry and to do so in a manner that is sensitive to the needs of the market.

However, when one examines the real-life impacts the picture stops looking rosy. A party providing named security services is obliged to obtain a licence from the authority. There is a fee to be paid. Licences are divided into two categories

• Contractors
• Employees

A contractor pays an “Administration fee” of EUR 1,000 and a sectorial fee calculutated on their turnover and sector. Now remember the Authority is not some voluntary trade organisaiton, that one can ignore if it’s membership fees are too high, it is mandatory for Security providers to obtain licences.

There are some formailties necessary to get a licence also

• Valid Tax Clearance Certificate
• A Certificate of Incorporation (for companies) dated not earlier than 4 weeks before the date of the application
• A Certificate of the Business Name where the trade or business name is not that of the beneficial owner of the business
• Completed Criminality Checking Authorisation Form
• Evidence of attainment of the required sector standard (I.S.999:2004 for Security Guarding, Door Supervisor companies &
  EN:50131:1997 for Installers of Intruder Alarms)

Wow? Lets look at the first one again “Valid Tax Clearance Certificate”, this has nothing to do with the Authorities aims as quoted earlier “…instil customer and public confidence in this multi-stranded, multi-faceted business with the introduction, control and management of a comprehensive, standard driven, licensing system for all individuals and companies involved in the industry and to do so in a manner that is sensitive to the needs of the market.” instead it is acting as a servant of the Revenue Commissioners, and incidentally recording peoples PPS numbers, and wow the Authority also provides a useful webform for snitchers, sounds like something from Communist Russia, and in conclusion remember that when a licence is required for something it can always be recinded, or refused if the issuing authority takes a dislike to the licenceee, how many “Private Investigators” will be refused a new licence if they snoop around something unpopular with the government of the day?
Now I’m not involved in the Security industry and I don’t mind about this Authority in particular my concern is over the increasing regulations in Irish life, lets use the term “over-regulation”, it seems that once a parliament exists it must keep making legislation!