Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for his welcome. As he stated, this is my first time to address the House and I wish all new Senators the best of luck for the future. My approach on all issues, particularly disabilities, will be to work closely with all Senators. If they need help or support, they should not hesitate to knock on my door and I will facilitate them to the best of my ability.

I am responding on behalf of the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality who is grateful to the House for giving her the opportunity to clarify matters so far as this issue is concerned. The Senator will be pleased to note that there is no undue delay in the processing of applications for persons who require Garda vetting. The Tánaiste has been informed by the Garda authorities that the current average processing time for vetting applications is actually four weeks.

The Senator will be aware that the national vetting bureau provides employment vetting for organisations registered with the Garda for this purpose and which employ persons in a full-time, part-time, voluntary or training capacity in positions where they have substantial unsupervised access to children or vulnerable adults. Garda vetting applications are processed as they are received in the national vetting bureau and all organisations registered for Garda vetting are aware of the processing timeframes and have been advised to factor this into their recruitment and selection process. To put the scale of the operation being conducted by the national vetting bureau into some perspective, in 2015 the bureau, or the Garda central vetting unit as it was then known, processed 335,427 applications for vetting. This year, up to 31 May, it has processed 129,651 applications, of which 80% were processed within the four week timeframe alluded to.

Approximately 18,000 organisations are in receipt of vetting services from the national vetting bureau, covering a wide range of health, educational, sports and recreational sectors. The bureau provides ongoing support and advice for the organisations concerned in managing their vetting requirements. There will, of course, always be some individual cases where additional inquiries may be necessary and this may result in processing times in excess of the average. That is one of the points raised by the Senator. The primary consideration of the bureau is to seek to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults. That is the key issue. Accordingly, the vetting process demands rigorous procedures to safeguard its integrity and maintain the highest level of confidence by the public and organisations availing of the service.

Any vetting process will take a certain minimum amount of time to complete and, taking into account the importance of measures to protect children and vulnerable adults, while providing an effective and efficient service, the current processing period is not considered unreasonable. An Garda Síochána is also committed to ensuring the service provided is delivered in as modern and efficient a manner as possible, which takes advantage of developments in technology. In this context, An Garda Síochána launched an e-vetting system on 29 April which will facilitate the processing of applications in an online format, thus removing the current time consuming process of manual applications. E-vetting will further streamline the vetting process and contribute to sustaining reduced processing times for vetting applications. The e-vetting system has been designed to be compatible with the requirements of the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 to 2016 and, in this regard, was launched in tandem with the commencement of the Acts.