Neale Richmond (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, to the House. This is an issue I have raised before with another Minister of State in the Department and it has not changed. From the outset, I would like to put on record that, when we are dealing with children and the most vulnerable in society, it is vital that the highest level of protection and vetting is afforded. However, that does not excuse the fact the current system is not fit for purpose.

When I brought this up before the summer recess with the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, he assured me the waiting time for Garda vetting was down to just five weeks. I have had dozens of cases brought to the attention of my office where it is clearly well beyond five weeks. A number of applications that were made in August still have not been dealt with and it is now late October, and I know of two applications that took at least three months to go through.

Where I find there is a lot of confusion is in regard to the requirement for multiple and duplicate vetting. For example, if someone is already Garda vetted to, for example, coach under-15s rugby in a secondary school, the same person needs to be vetted again to coach under-15s rugby in a different school or club. We are constantly hearing from people who require multiple vetting. There is a sports provision company that works in secondary schools. It has ten coaches on the books who go to schools all across Ireland but they need to be vetted for every single school. Instead of being vetted once, the company has to get the same individual, with the same background, vetted ten times for the same activity.

This is leading to inordinate delays and leading to businesses not being able to get the right people in place. It is putting huge pressure on parents who are not sure that these services can be provided. A further problem is that these businesses are not able to take on anyone for work experience or training because of the various requirements. They know that if they were to take on a person for, say, a two-month placement, it would take at least two months to get the person vetted, so they would not go through with it. Another area is in the provision of pre-school care, where to get a substitute teacher for a crèche or Montessori school at very short notice, the teacher has to be vetted not just to teach the activity to the age group but be vetted for the school in question. This is unlike the position with secondary and primary schools, where there is a central database.

The issue is very topical at the moment, given the Minister, Deputy Bruton, has rightly said in the past two weeks that, for the ASTI's upcoming industrial action, he will look to bring in parents and people from the school community to cover playground supervision and others duties that are being withdrawn separate to the actual strike days. When I did my leaving certificate many years ago, the ASTI only went on strike for five days officially but it worked to rule for an additional 11 days, so those in my school missed 16 full days because we were unable to bring in parents or other staff to do the supervision. This industrial action is due to start next month and there is no way that parents will be vetted in time to do this, even though the vast majority of those who might be willing to volunteer their time are already vetted for other activities, often in the school, be it coaching rugby or soccer, looking after drama clubs, debating and so on.

I believe there is an unnecessary amount of bureaucracy and duplication for a process that, while important, could be simplified and improved. I would like to hear what the Minister of State has to say.