Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 52: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he is satisfied that the Garda vetting unit is adequately resourced to deal with all requests from organisations seeking vetting services, in view of the recent revelations in the Ferns Report; the way in which the vetting unit will prioritise requests received; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35803/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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Last year, an inter-agency working group on Garda vetting reported with a clear and focused strategy for enhancing national vetting arrangements from a child protection perspective. This strategy provided for an expansion in the criminal record vetting service provided by the Garda central vetting unit to all organisations which recruit persons having substantial, unsupervised access to children and vulnerable adults. This has significant implications for the education, child care, youth work, sports and voluntary sectors, among others. Religious organisations also fall within the terms of the strategy.

To meet an increase in demand associated with such an expansion in the availability of vetting, the working group made a number of recommendations. It sought an additional ten civilian staff, to increase the vetting unit's strength from 13 to 23, reviewable after six months of expanded operation. However, when the Minister of State, Deputy Lenihan and I considered this recommendation, we concluded that an extra 17 staff should be provided to the unit, to more than double its strength from 13 to 30. We provided more staff than was requested, as a recognition of the importance of vetting as a public policy issue.

I am pleased to inform Deputy Cuffe that the central vetting unit has now been successfully transferred to new, custom-designed office accommodation in Thurles, as part of the Government's decentralisation programme. It will soon complete expansion of its vetting service in that location. I confirm that during its expansion the matter of the adequacy of staff resources will be kept under constant review.

The strategy is being overseen by an implementation group on Garda vetting which includes key stakeholders from the education, health, child care and sports sectors, as well as Mr. Paul Gilligan, chief executive officer of the ISPCC. The implementation group is overseeing the implementation of the practical recommendations of the report including the training of additional staff, accommodation matters, financial management arrangements, work process re-engineering and the preparation of client organisations and sectors for the availability of vetting.

In terms of overall prioritisation across sectors, the central vetting unit will roll out its vetting service in the order in which each sector completes its own preparatory actions.

Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I welcome the expansion of the Garda vetting unit. However, I wonder if the system can cope at the moment or will be able to cope in future with the significant number of applications it receives. When one talks to any of the relevant agencies it appears there is a near avalanche of requests being received by the unit. I hope applications will be prioritised in some way, particularly where children are most vulnerable. Some sports bodies, for example in swimming, have a history of problems with child abuse. It is simplistic to adopt a chronological approach. Is the Minister aware that the National Youth Council of Ireland states that at least 33,000 youth leaders will require vetting? Is he confident that a mere 30 people in the office in Thurles will be able to cope? What waiting time will apply?

The Minister has promised legislation on reckless endangerment, using the state of Massachusetts as a model. Will he bring forward legislation to require bodies working with children to put in place a strong code of practice or vetting system for its staff? While some organisations, notably the Roman Catholic Church and Scouting Ireland, have put in place strong controls, many organisations have only rudimentary systems or none at all. Will he introduce such legislation so that children are not put at undue risk from voluntary bodies or other organisations?

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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There is an accumulated backlog of unvetted people which will take some time to deal with. As I indicated in my answer to the Deputy, these sectors will be dealt with by the vetting unit in chronological order as they get their requirements together. To vet 30,000 people the staff in the unit, given its current complement, would need to deal with 1,000 inquiries each in a year, which should be possible. If extra staff resources are required they will be recruited. As the Deputy knows, it is necessary in all but a small number of cases to impose a charge because we cannot have people repeatedly availing of a service without thinking carefully about the costs to the Exchequer. The new unit, in its purpose-built accommodation organised around this core function and with a significant civilian, as opposed to Garda, staff component, is the way forward and will greatly enhance the capacity of the State to vet people in areas where it is appropriate.

Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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If an organisation working with children submitted a request for vetting today how long does the Minister estimate it would take for the vetting unit in Thurles to give a definite response? Some of my staff have been on the payroll of the Houses of the Oireachtas for five months and have yet to receive security clearance.

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I cannot answer a hypothetical question but security clearance is a radically different proposition from vetting provided by the central vetting unit. It arises in another question later today so I will not trespass on that but "soft" information, as opposed to "hard" information, is a requisite in a security vetting procedure whereas, as the Deputy knows, the inclusion of soft information on people on public records for use in the vetting procedure is problematic. I stress that negative clearance, which is what vetting amounts to, is not a substitute for a proper duty of care on those involved in recruiting people to perform functions involving children. Simply finding that somebody has no criminal record is not for the most part an adequate measure of the suitability of a person to undertake a task involving unsupervised access to vulnerable people.

Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Are there plans to legislate?

Séamus Pattison (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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We are behind time.

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I will come to that in a later question.

Séamus Pattison (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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I remind the House that supplementary questions and answers are subject to a maximum of one minute.