Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 and to provide for related matters.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for granting me time to introduce the Bill. I thank the staff in the Bills Office and the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for their assistance. Particular thanks are due to the Office of Parliamentary Advisers, OPLA, and Niamh McKenna, who helped me tease out the considerable legal issues involved while preserving the policy intent of the Bill. I will share time with my colleagues, Deputies Paul Donnelly and Cronin, who are co-signing the Bill.

Nobody questions the importance of the system of Garda vetting introduced in the 2012 Act. It is an important measure to protect children and vulnerable adults in combination with other safeguarding measures. Garda vetting is used in many professional and voluntary contexts in relation to both paid and voluntary roles. I am sure many in this House have engaged with it for local sports clubs and voluntary organisations. It helps organisations and companies feel confident in the people they hire and enables compliance with legal obligations where sensitive work or vulnerable people are involved. However, the system is burdensome for many, especially when volunteers find themselves having to be vetted by multiple organisations, even with no criminal record. It puts people off.

This Bill sets out to provide a register of generalised consents, particularly where a number of vetting applications have to be made. It allows an individual to apply for inclusion on this register and will allow approved organisations for judo, for example, and the GAA and HSE to vet the individual without having to complete the full process every time. Ideally, we will look at the general review. I urge the Government to look at adopting the Bill's provisions or instituting a full review of vetting legislation.

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