Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Department got down to two to three weeks. Recently, because of the huge additional amount of work that office apparently is getting, even without this Bill being enacted, the time for vetting decisions to be made has moved out to six to eight weeks. New staff have been recruited to the vetting office, whose training probably is just about being completed around now, who have been transferred from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. I also have had discussions with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, about the Department getting further staff in the context of the arrangements that are in place under the Croke Park agreement for transfer of staff from different parts of the public service. I am trying to secure additional staff in that manner, in order not to add further to public expenditure. The Department also used the JobBridge scheme to get individuals into the vetting office who were trained and did an excellent job on foot of that training. At one point, the Department had ten individuals working in the vetting bureau under the JobBridge scheme.

I am very conscious that the bringing into force of this legislation will add additional pressures. My Department and I have had the necessary engagement with the Garda Síochána, which essentially is in charge of the vetting bureau and I will do everything I can, in consultation with the Minister, Deputy Howlin, to ensure that prior to the bringing into force of this legislation, the staffing is in place and available because it would defeat the purpose of the legislation, were the timeframes to continue to expand. When I came into office, it was taking between 12 to 14 weeks for vetting applications to be dealt with, which was far too long and was creating difficulties for a number of organisations and in a range of different areas, particularly where people were working with children and where gaps needed to be filled. It is an issue that must be addressed. Some steps have been taken in that regard and consideration is also being given to improving the information technology system that operates in the context of processing vetting applications to speed up matters. Consequently, changes will be necessary to ensure the timelines are not spread out.

One of the conversations I had with the person in charge when I visited the vetting bureau was about the possibility of fast-tracking certain applications for vetting. The difficulty in creating a separate stream is that one then has people making cases for fast-tracking, and instead of doing the vetting, staff must consider whether a certain individual could be fast-tracked. There have been occasions when there has been an urgent need to have an individual vetted for particular work and they have been facilitated by the vetting bureau where the urgency has been properly communicated. We will do as much as we can in this area. There is no point in enacting the legislation only for us then to create a large arrears of applications with not just weeks but months passing before vetting is undertaken.