Dáil debates

Thursday, 20 September 2012

National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill 2012: Second Stage (Resumed)

 

2:10 pm

Photo of Robert DowdsRobert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Níl morán le rá agam ach tá pointe tábhactach amháin agam. I welcome the legislation. Other speakers have referred to the reasons it is important. It is vitally important to do everything we can to safeguard children and vulnerable adults in their dealings with different organisations. As Deputy Hannigan alluded to, a national vetting system has been called for since 2004. The legislation is long overdue and I thank the Government for introducing it.

It should be possible for vetting reports to be transferred between organisations or stored in a central location and remain valid for a set period of time. This will reduce the need for repeated vetting of people found to have no marks against them. It will speed up the processing of vetting applications and allow people to take up jobs or start volunteering with organisations. I want to ensure the administrative burden on voluntary organisations and people who want to volunteer is as low as possible, while protecting children and vulnerable adults. The subject is close to the heart of the Acting Chairman, Deputy Catherine Byrne, and it is important people are welcome as volunteers. They should be able to start volunteering within a reasonable time while they are motivated and before their circumstances change. We all know how important volunteering organisations are in this country. The obvious example is the GAA. No country has an organisation like it and it is one example of many around the country.

The issue of making vetting portable in some form was raised at the justice committee, but it has not made its way into the legislation. This may be because the Minister is concerned that people could forge certificates, as he stated in response to a parliamentary question on 19 June 2012. Forgery could be avoided by having, for instance, a central database of vetting reports, each of which would be valid for a few years before one had to be re-vetted. During that period, an organisation could apply to check one's vetting record without vetting having to commence again from scratch. I make these remarks partly because I am aware that our neighbour across the water has a vetting system whose procedures are, in part, extremely cumbersome. Even when people move from one job to a similar one, the vetting procedure must start from scratch. The faster the procedure is, the better, but speed is less important than getting things right.

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