Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for selecting this issue. I recognise the fact considerable progress has been made on the Garda vetting issue in recent years and I recall raising a similar Topical Issue on the subject a number of years ago, given the difficulties at the time. Nonetheless, more progress needs to be made. The considerable duplication involved needs to be eradicated in order to make the system more efficient.

I will give an example of a case I encountered recently. Tom is a teacher who changed from one teaching post to another last September. He had to be Garda vetted in his original post and had to be vetted again to go to his new job in September. Tom also wanted to get involved in his local community. He joined the GAA club to become a coach and had to be vetted to do so. He also wanted to get involved in the local rugby club and had to be vetted again. He was a serious guy who wanted to be involved in the community so he also got involved in coaching at the local soccer club, and he had to be vetted again. Within the space of one year, he was vetted five times to do his coaching and his teaching job.

There is too much duplication in this regard, although I recognise that Garda vetting is very important. A simple response to this duplication would be if the person was Garda vetted once and then given a card which would last for, say, a two-year period. Such a process would mean that, after two years, he would be Garda vetted again, the card would be renewed and he could use that card for teaching and to go to the GAA club, soccer club or whatever organisation he wanted to go to, rather than having to go through the process time and time again.

The Minister of State might argue it is now a very easy process that can be done online, which is a fair point, but it can be very slow to go through this whole process when it is not necessary. To have the same individual Garda vetted time and again within a short space of time is inefficient. In order to make it more efficient, I believe we should introduce a card system whereby the person would be Garda vetted at the beginning of the year and this would last for a two-year period before the card was renewed. I ask the Minister to consider this option, which is reasonable and would simplify the system, not just for the Department but for everybody involved, and would avoid a lot of the duplication.

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