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YOU MAY NOT know this, but Ireland has private investigators. Lots of private investigators.
But what do they do? Do you climb the stairs in a wood-panelled to find a hard-boiled gumshoe downing scotch and lamenting some hood that used a lip to ankle outta court?
Not really.
Mostly, PIs in Ireland deal with corporate investigations, frauds and matrimonial cases. Their day to day is a mix of investigation, research and field work and it is always varied.
“It’s a great job,” says one seasoned PI “It’s really varied and interesting.”
Private
PIs are, unsurprisingly cagey about revealing the specifics of their jobs and their own identities. None that spoke to TheJournal.ie wished to be identified.
However, those that did speak said that the job and public perception are worlds apart.
I don’t often tell people what I do for a living, but when I do, people think it’s all going through bins and saving dames. It is not.
“Have I gone through bins? Only once!”
Working
In Ireland, there are a number of styles of PIs.
“There are different levels of investigators and would specialise in different ranges,” says a corporate investigator of decades experience.
“It can range from trademarks, companies looking for information on others, debt information, insurance fraud or matrimonial work.”
Like any industry, there are people who gravitate to certain types of work, with some people not doing matrimonial work and others don’t do insurance work.
However, you can’t just be a PI.
It’s a very difficult business to get into. You can’t just become a PI, you have to find a company to take you on, but even that is very difficult because companies have operatives that they’re comfortable with.
Not TV stars
The idea that the job is as portrayed on TV is something that irks most PIs.
“Ordinary people think we’re like off the TV, but we have to work within the Data Protection Act,” says one.
“It’s annoying, because sometimes the client carries that view in with them,” says another. “That can hamper how they view your work.”
Fraud squad
Much of a PIs work is referred to them by legal or insurance firms, an arena that leads to some interesting cases.
“I had to check on a man who was claiming he had whiplash after a car crash. The insurance company wasn’t convinced, so they had me follow him.
“I tracked him for days and he seemed genuinely hurt. He hammed it up at work, in public and everything. I was getting ready to tell the insurance company that he was on the level, but then I spotted him by chance at a gym, where he was lifting weights.”
Another PI tells a story of two young men who tried to scam a hotel.
“It looked like one of the lads had slipped and broken his knees on the bathroom floor. The hotel was going to be caught for a lot of money, so they asked me to look at it, more out of hope than anything.
As I investigated it and asked a couple of people, it came out that while drunk, they had settled on this plan where one would sit on the edge of the bath with his legs stretched and the other jumped off the toilet and stamped on his knees.
Infidelity
Marital issues make up a lot of business for PIs, with many reluctant to talk about methods or cases because of the sensitive nature of the cases.
PI Audrey Christie says that she is reluctant to talk about marital cases out of the loyalty to her clients and this is seen across the industry.
Licence to thrill
What comes from speaking to PIs is that they want their industry regulated. Many are members of worldwide organisations, but the industry is not currently licensed by the Private Security Authority.
A license will be brought in next year, and will cut out “fly by night” organisations, one PI says.
So many people are doing it and they work in the shadows and I don’t want to work in the shadows.
Information is power and hogan has taken away the most basic human right! Access to information.
The first person commented how there was no sound (and has now removed their comment, there is sound!! ) imagine the frustration you felt when watching the video, that’s our lives every day. Frustrating. Tiring. Limiting.
Return our ‘sound’
Yet another botched decision. , the craziness continues .
The video tells the tale. This is a shameless government, dismantling the few decent services that give some degree of dignity to those in need of them.
ISL should be enshrined in the constitution with full protection of rights!
I know it’s racist but, why don’t we take a few grand out of the foreign aid budget?
Over half a billion, and much of it thrown into a black hole. it’s absolute lunacy. If anybody disagrees, can they tell me if Africa is getting better or worse?
Sometimes I really do hope there is a hell and I hope those like Hogan burn there for eternity. The man should not be allowed to be in charge of opening a door.
Unfortunately that is not the case. Nature is cruel.
Why was that comment “there is no sound” been removed, for all you know that person may be deaf, ok so we all say he made a joke, try understand what the people are saying without reading the text I can just about lipread can’t sign and I can’t hear. People who know me who comment on here will know I am deaf, and not taking the piss.
A very sensible comment Declan .
Why would you need sound? See the world the way deaf people do!
I could have used this service had I known about it,now that I have its closed,then I may not have got because the household income might be €2 over the limit.
€8m is all that’s needed here!
Was even borrowing it and putting it on the “slate” considered?
Typical of Ireland and it’s backward government,hitting the needy and taking from the people that need services most.it can sometimes be very difficult for deaf people to integrate into society and now they are being victimised by their own government by the closure if deaforward they must feel further away from the rest of society than ever.The government shouod be embarrassed and ashamed but one thing is for sure,they are not!
Why am I not surprised? Oh yes because I live in Ireland.
It is with great dismay I read about the cut in funding to this vital service for the deaf community. The video above clearly illustrates how this service is needed so as to ensure that members of the deaf community are able to interact with bodies such as hospitals, government agencies and utilities companies in a dignified manner and on the same basis as any member of the hearing community.
For the government to cut this funding is tantamount to denying members of the deaf community the ability to access such basic human rights as to health and education. It is discrimination at the most fundamental level where the effect (intended or otherwise) is to marginalise 5,000 citizens of this country. It cannot be justified by raising budgetary concerns where less vital expenditure could be cut in its place.
i want our ids back, i don’t want be isolated again, need break the barrier, where can i go ? and access to health care, education etc, i wont go to gp if there is no interpreter, they gave me wrong med or no information. i have enough suffer in my childhood so enough is enough.
Totally agree Michelle! This decision is BEYOND shocking and an insult to every deaf person in this country!
This decision by Minister Hogan confirms his level of ignorance in dealing with people who have special needs. It’s obvious he neither understands nor cares about people who are challenged everyday in their efforts to live a normal life. These special services are a real and measurable lifeline for thousands of ordinary Irish citizens. “It’s a long road that hasn’t got a bend” and this decision will come back to haunt you Mr. Hogan
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