Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleagues for working on this Bill because it is an important one. We have been talking about this issue for a long time. I had a couple of previous roles. I worked for Tusla and I was also a children's officer in a GAA club, which was a challenging role in itself as it involved making sure everybody in the club was Garda vetted and children were protected. We had all of the policies and procedures in place to ensure children and young people were protected because the Garda vetting system is important. It is designed to protect children and vulnerable adults. It is used not only in a voluntary context but also for jobs and important roles in society involving work with young people, vulnerable people and older people. It is critical.

Vetting has been in the media in recent weeks due to the very serious case of a taxi driver, Raymond Shorten, who was convicted of two brutal rapes of women in his taxi. Subsequently, it emerged that this person had been convicted for another assault on a child several years ago. People are asking, quite rightly, about the Garda vetting process. I raised this matter last week. When you have children, you constantly talk about safety. When people use a taxi, they think everything is okay because drivers are vetted and we hope they will bring our children, family members and friends home safely. Unfortunately, that system needs to be looked at again to figure out how this happened. How was that person allowed to drive a taxi at that time? That is an important issue that needs to be looked at.

As I said, I was a children's officer, but I was also a coach in a GAA club. I remember one particular year when I had just been vetted again by Tusla. I had been vetted as a coach in the club. We then had a féile, which meant young people were staying in my home. We were Garda vetted for that in and around the same time. At that stage, I think I had been vetted about five times in about 18 months for different roles and voluntary groups I was involved in. I always thought "Here we go again". I am lucky in that I have not lived in many houses. I think I have only lived in three different places in my entire life. It was not difficult for me to find the addresses and remember where I had lived, but it is still an onerous task. I also thought about those five different times I sent a different form to the vetting bureau. There has to be a simpler, easier way of doing this.

With respect, the Minister of State raised important points about the Bill. The value of putting forward legislation is that someone else who casts a different eye on it will take a different view and will say we should try to make it a little better and do what we want and intend to do. In this case, it is to make it easier for people to get Garda vetting and provide for a speedier way of getting it done. Primarily, it is to ensure that every person who works with children, young people, older people and vulnerable people is vetted to the best degree possible. No system is foolproof and every system can be abused, but we need to do our best to ensure the system we have in place protects society.

Again, I thank my colleagues and the Minister of State for her important contribution. I hope we can move the Bill forward and ensure it does what we want it to do, while also protecting people.

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