The regulator for the private security sector has revoked licences which had been provided to more than 350 people to work as guards in the industry on the basis that proof of training that had been submitted was fraudulent.
The Dáil’s Committee of Public Accounts was told on Thursday that, in addition, a further 96 licence applications had been rejected by the authority.
The Comptroller and Auditor (C&AG) General Seamus McCarthy told the meeting that “there may have been an organised fraud”.
He said he understood that the matter had been referred to gardaí.
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A note in the annual accounts of the Private Security Authority (PSA) for 2025 states that it became aware of a weakness in control involving the use of fraudulent training results forms by applicants applying to it for a security guard licence.
“Training result forms are issued by training providers. They are accepted by the PSA as proof of completion of the relevant training course ... The fraudulent documents, uncovered by one of our training providers, purported to show that an applicant had completed requisite training as a security guard when they had not.”
The accounts say that in response, the authority implemented new procedures to ensure that new licences were issued only when training had been confirmed with the relevant provider and reviewed those already issued to identify fraudulent documents.
“The PSA strengthened verification procedures ... including more robust audit mechanisms.”
The accounts say 21,094 licences were examined and, of these, 355 were revoked. In addition, 96 applications were refused.”
Fine Gael TD James Geoghegan said there seemed to have been “a very serious attempt to perpetrate wide-scale fraud on behalf of people who purported to have the requisite training to be a private security guard”.
“Correct,” replied the C&AG.
Geoghegan asked whether there was some external agency making money from the people who submitted the applications.
The C&AG said it may have been an organised fraud.
Joe Neville of Fine Gael asked whether there was a risk that people with criminal records were applying and able to get work as security guards.
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The C&AG said there was a vetting aspect to the granting of licences, but there was also a training requirement in areas such as restraint and legal issues.
Paul McAuliffe of Fianna Fáil said the committee should seek greater detail from the authority.
Committee chairman John Brady of Sinn Féin said he had many concerns as “anyone who gets a licence like this is dealing with members of the public. We know the importance of having people properly trained in terms of restraint and there have been examples of restraint gone wrong. There are some very serious questions we need to ask the PSA.”
The C&AG said he believed a licence was valid for two years and individuals had to reapply subsequently.
Separately, the committee was told by the Health Service Executive at the end of last year it was owed €200 million from health insurers in respect of subscribers who had been treated as private patients in its facilities. It said €54 million of this sum related to claims that were awaiting completion and sign-off by hospital consultants.
