Dublin City Council hired a private security company to “assist” gardaí during the St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
Approximately 40 personnel from MICAD Security were deployed around the Temple Bar area of the city centre to "assist with congestion". The contract cost the council €15,000, which included the cost of barriers.
A spokesman for the council last night said the security guards, who maintained a visible presence in the area throughout the day, had “no powers” to enforce public order laws and were there strictly to “assist” gardaí.
“They don’t have any powers,” he said. “The public order act is what the gardaí are enforcing and the security guys don’t have those powers. All they can do really is man the security barriers. They have no real role beyond that.
“The gardaí are extremely busy tonight in particular. There are 38 access points to Temple Bar and probably you would have one garda and one security guard at each point rather than two gardaí at each.”
The spokesman said the operation was co-ordinated from a “central control point” where the number of people entering and exiting Temple Bar was monitored.
“There is a central control point that is co-ordinating the whole thing, and they are in contact with each other,” he said. “They know what the numbers are like around Temple Bar and are able to monitor that and how many people are getting in and out.”
Anti-social behaviour
Speaking earlier in the day, the council’s deputy chief executive Brendan Kenny said the company was hired to deal with congestion rather than anti-social behaviour.
“There has been very serious congestion at times because Temple Bar is such a popular area,” he said. “The concerns have been expressed not just by ourselves but by the gardaí and the business owners.
“If somebody gets hurt or has a heart attack, it would be very difficult to get an ambulance in there. So it’s not problems or anti-social behaviour. It’s really sheer congestion. There are too many people in Temple Bar and that makes it very difficult.
“Sometimes young people particularly come along with crates of beer or whatever and come into Temple Bar simply to party on the streets, and that can be quite dangerous. That won’t happen. They simply won’t get through these areas.”
He said that at peak times and when Temple Bar reached capacity, access to the area was blocked.
Mr Kenny added that the move was “a trial” and that if it’s deemed to have been a success, it will be utilised in future years and at other highly congested events.
