Neale Richmond (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply which is slightly disappointing for obvious reasons. Part of the point I raised has been missed. I queried the all-in timeframe of the process, not just the amount of time an application rests with the Garda or the body to which the vetting process has been outsourced. It concerns the period from the time a body submits an application for vetting and to when there is the final clarification. All of the evidence presented to my office by Montessori schools and children's sports camps shows that it is not a four-week process, that the timeframe involved has not been reduced and that there is still an inordinate delay. From an employment point of view, when one loses a number of staff members who give two or three weeks' notice, knowing that it will take at least four weeks to have a replacement vetted is one thing, but when the delay extends from four to six, eight or ten weeks, it makes many organisations completely unviable and thus completely restricts what is open to parents and guardians in terms of services they can provide for their children.