David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The investment in the vetting system in recent years is a clear indication that the Government is taking this matter very seriously. There has been a very significant expansion in the capacity of the vetting bureau, especially since the introduction of the e-vetting system. In 2017, the vetting bureau received 497,026 applications, that is almost half a million, which is an increase from 389,548 in 2016. The need for the allocation of resources for vetting is kept under continuous review by the garda authorities who continue to engage with registered organisations to maintain standards and promote best practice in vetting. The responsibility is with organisations to ensure that the people they engage are vetted. Each organisation is responsible.

On the question of duplication, section 12 of the 2012 Act does provide for a degree of flexibility which helps to lessen the administrative burden for relevant organisations. The Act provides for certain limited circumstances where organisations can share a single vetting disclosure where this is agreed to by the vetting applicant and also makes specific provision in respect of persons who may be employed on a recurring but non-continuous basis. Nevertheless, we must always be careful to ensure that vetting disclosures are up to date in order to take account of the most recently available information. They must be current, rigorous and certain. We cannot take any chance that somebody might slip through, and some people are very clever in trying to do that.

I will take on board what the Deputy said. It is something that has been raised before. The fact that it usually only takes five working days for the applications to be processed and returned makes it easier for everybody. It must also be borne in mind that it is the organisation that is responsible. If somebody appears with a card to an organisation, it is the organisation rather than the person with the card who is ultimately responsible. It is an important and serious topic and one about which we must be very vigilant. I thank the Deputy for his interest and for raising it this evening.

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