A NUMBER OF checks and an ‘analysis’ have been carried out of a firm contracted to provide security services at the Citywest asylum seeker centre in Dublin after concerns were raised about the qualifications of staff.

Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman has said that the firm has been given a “clean bill of health” from the regulator.

However questions remain over whether the regulator – the Private Security Authority of Ireland – carried out in-person checks at the Citywest centre in order to reach this decision. Neither the PSA nor the Department of Integration could confirm if the PSA visited the centre to confirm it was complying with guidelines.

They were also unable to confirm whether an ‘audit’ of the firm was specifically related to its work in the Citywest centre. While the Department initially said that the PSA had carried out an audit of the firm providing security services at the centre, it recently clarified that it understands that the firm – Superior Group – was subject to recent “enquiries” by the regulator. 

The PSA told The Journal that it cannot comment on any ongoing investigations or cases. 

The security arrangements at the centre came under scrutiny in March when The Journal reported that footage had emerged of two staff members holding an asylum seeker in Citywest down, while another staff member repeatedly punched him in the head.

Speaking at a press conference for the launch of a Government strategy in recent days, O’Gorman said “The regulator for the system has engaged in regular checks and regular analysis of the security firm undertaken there. They have given it a clean bill of health up to April of this year”.

He said he was aware of an alleged assault that took place in the centre, and that he saw footage of it.
O’Gorman said the incident looked to be “extremely serious” and that it is rightly the case that two security personnel identified as having been involved are no longer working at Citywest, and that gardaí are investigating.

The Department of Integration recently made a payment of €350,000 to the Superior Group firm.

It initially signed a contract worth €2.5 million annually with Superior Group. It is understood that the value of this contract has grown considerably due to an increased need for security staff.

The Journal reported that a number of staff, some of which a risk assessment report flagged as being unvetted and unlicensed as of January 2023, were hired and managed by a subcontractor who was being paid €40,000 a week from Superior Group from late springtime 2023 up until mid-March of this year.

It is not clear what contractual arrangements existed between the subcontractor and workers, or if this arrangement is still in place.

The Sabre risk assessment report, which was commissioned by Superior Group and sent to the Department of Integration in January 2023. found that one subcontractor who is no longer operating at Citywest was running the “night shift” at the centre at that time, and that a “large percentage” of the staff were being “paid in cash…every Friday”.

The report said that that subcontractor organised a “large group of family and friends travelling to Dublin from Ballinasloe every evening and then returning to Dublin the next morning”.

The investigator said that this had created a “nepotism” situation and a “closing of ranks”. It further said that workers who were “claiming to be facilities staff… go on to describe themselves carrying out security duties”.

It said that there was “no vetting in place for staff” and that the majority of workers had around “three months of experience in this field”.

The Department has said that it is in the process of putting out a tender for security services at Citywest, which is one of the biggest asylum seeker centres in the country.