A financial report submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas by the Private Security Authority (PSA) has revealed that the Authority spent a total of €700,000 on public relations and marketing during 2022 and 2023.
The Authority regulates a wide range of security services including security guards for companies providing security at IPAS accommodation centres.
It received an Oireachtas Grant of €4.2 million for 2023 and just over €4 million in 2022. It also generated licence fee income of €3,229,851 and €3,391,224 for 2023 and 2022 respectively.
The PSA carried out 3 investigations in 2023 and 4 investigations to end of May 2024 into the provision of security services at accommodation centres contracted to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
The report shows that the PSA incurred expenses of €245,930 for PR and marketing in 2023 and €469,141 in 2022.
The Authority also spent almost €240,000 on consultancy services during the same two-year period (€138,701 in 2023 and €99,871in 2022).
The current Board of the PSA was appointed in March 2022 for a term of four years.
The PSA is directly accountable to the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee. It also has an Oversight Agreement for the period 2023 to 2025 together with a Performance Delivery Agreement in place with the Minister’s Department.
The current Chief Executive is Mr. Paul Scallan who has over 30 years’ experience in the Civil Service and has worked across a number of Departments including the Department of Social Protection and Revenue Commissioners, while former Independent Senator Jillian van Turnhout is the PSA Chairperson.
Ms van Turnhout’s consultancy website describes her as someone has “leveraged her decades of experience on various Boards, as a leader in Irish and EU politics and NGO’s.”