Private security to patrol Dublin city centre

Plans are being advanced to hire private security operatives to patrol Dublin city centre following discussions between business representatives and Robert Watt’s new city regeneration authority.

A tender is being drafted to contract a security firm who will provide “safety operatives” to complement Garda resources.

The plans have been formulated without consultation with Dublin city councillors, who have demanded “full scrutiny” of the legal and civil liberty implications.

Watt, the former Department of Health secretary general, has been appointed to lead the Dublin City Development Company, tasked with regenerating O’Connell Street and the surrounding area.

The 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.

Business lobby group Dublin Town is understood to be acting as the contracting body for the new security service. Initial funding is expected to be provided by prominent city businesses.

The move follows suggestions by management at department store Arnotts that antisocial behaviour in the city could be tackled by ending the use of the GPO for providing social welfare payments.

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Watt last month said Dublin 1 had been unfairly burdened with a “massive overconcentration” of services for “people on the margins of society”.

Green Party councillor Janet Horner said the plan raised “multiple red flags”.

“I am deeply concerned that we would have private policing of Dublin city. Will this be Dublin’s version of Ice? [US immigration and customs enforcement]. This needs public scrutiny, it needs to be considered from a civil liberties point of view. I would be very worried about private security guards being in charge of people’s safety and security in the city,” she said.

“I am fuming that this would ever go this far without coming before the council, that they are starting to draw up a tender and we as councillors have never heard of it.”

Social Democrat councillor Cian Farrell, who sits on the advisory board to the authority, said it was his understanding the operatives would be “liaising very closely” with gardaí.

“There will be some sort of communication set up, they will be eyes and ears relaying back information if the Garda aren’t present.”

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Horner, Conor Reddy of People Before Profit and Kourtney Kenny of Sinn Féin tabled an emergency motion for last Monday’s city council meeting calling for “urgent and full scrutiny” of the plan by the council.

The motion was not taken but it was agreed a report would be presented to councillors next month.

Watt and Dublin Town declined to comment.