ICCL concerns on private security for Dublin
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has queried the legal basis for reported plans to hire private security workers to patrol Dublin’s city centre.
It has written to Robert Watt, who has been seconded to Dublin City Council as head of an interim project-management unit, ahead of the establishment of an organisation that will implement the regeneration recommendations of the Dublin City Task Force.
The ICCL move follows a report in The Irish Times that there had been talks between the unit and business representatives from the city, and that a tender was being drafted for business group Dublin Town to contract a security firm for this purpose.
‘Fundamental question’
The civil-liberties group said that the proposal to use private-security actors to patrol public streets – as opposed to guarding a property, premises, or a private event – raised “a fundamental question” about the legal basis for such a plan.
ICCL has also expressed concerns about the process that led to the proposal and about the potential role of any private-security workers on the streets.
The organisation said that, while it appreciated and acknowledged legitimate safety concerns that some Dublin city businesses had for staff and customers, such concerns had to be addressed through measures that were “evidence-based, necessary, proportionate, and respect the rights and dignity of everyone who uses our public streets”.