Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy for his interest in this matter, one about which Deputy Coonan was in contact with me earlier this week.

The Garda central vetting unit provides employment vetting for a large number of organisations registered with the Garda for this purpose and which employ or engage persons in a full-time, part-time, voluntary or training capacity to positions where they would have substantial, unsupervised access to children and vulnerable adults.

I am informed by the Garda authorities the average number of applications processed each month for 2011 to date is 25,384 and the average processing time for Garda vetting applications at the unit now stands at five weeks. This is a significant improvement on the average processing time of 12 weeks at the end of last year. One has to go back to 2009 to see a processing time as low as that which currently exists when the average number of applications received per month was approximately 25% lower than at present.

A total of 100 personnel are assigned to the unit at its office in Thurles, County Tipperary. To put this staffing figure into perspective, 13 individuals were employed to deal with vetting applications before the current process of development in Garda vetting began in 2005. Of this 100, five are members of An Garda Síochána and 75 are full-time Garda civilian personnel. In addition, 20 civilian personnel have been employed on a temporary basis to help reduce the backlog and bring down processing times. The contracts of ten of these personnel are due to expire shortly.

As I pointed out, the backlog issue has been substantially addressed and processing times have returned to what could be regarded as normal for this type of service. I have already placed on the record of the House my commitment to keeping the time required to obtain a vetting to the minimum possible. One of my first actions as Minister was to allow the Garda Commissioner the chance to extend the contracts of the ten temporary civilian employees for a six-month period and assign an additional ten temporary civilian personnel.

As a completely separate issue, the Garda Commissioner has pursued the question of providing placements for several individuals to avail of the JobBridge scheme. The aim of the scheme is to provide those seeking employment with the opportunity to gain valuable work experience, maintain close links with the labour market and to enhance their skills and competencies through a quality internship opportunity. It is expected that individuals who participate in the scheme will enhance their prospects of securing employment in the future. I am sure the Deputy will see the value in this.

The scheme will provide internship opportunities of six or nine months for unemployed individuals in organisations in the private, public and community and voluntary sectors. The offering of placements in the Garda central vetting unit under the terms of the scheme is for no other purpose than that for which the scheme was intended — to provide those seeking employment with the opportunity to gain valuable work experience, maintain close links with the labour market and to enhance their skills and competencies through a quality internship opportunity.

Any suggestion that these placements are being offered to fill vacancies left by the staff whose contracts are expiring is utterly rejected. I want to be absolutely clear — the position of temporary employment of staff on contract has not been affected in any way by developments with the JobBridge Scheme.

I wish to express my gratitude to the staff in question for their efforts in helping to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the unit, given the particularly important nature of the work in question. The sanction for their employment, however, was issued by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform clearly on the basis that their employment was temporary. That remains the case. However, in this context, discussions on the matter are ongoing between officials of my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Accordingly, it would be inappropriate for me to comment further on the matter at this point in time, other than to say I am hopeful there will be developments.

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