Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste would like me to emphasise that the purpose of the Garda employment vetting service is to seek to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults. Accordingly, the vetting process demands rigorous procedures to safeguard its integrity and to 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, given the importance of this service, the Tánaiste does not consider that processing times of five days are at all unreasonable, although I will ask her to come back to the Senator to show the veracity of this. I accept that not many people processed within five days will come to the Senator to thank him for this. He will only hear from those who suffer inordinate delays in processing. This is not the same for everybody.

E-vetting has contributed significantly to improving the vetting service, and the Government and the Garda authorities are committed to sustaining this level of service going forward. Most organisations are now signed up to e-vetting, and there are great benefits to this for them and vetting applicants. As I stated, individuals can track their own applications on the system. The Garda vetting bureau works with the registered organisations on an ongoing basis to maintain quality and standards in respect of the process. The Garda authorities continue to work also with the other registered organisations to bring them on board.

I take on board and will convey to the Tánaiste the Senator's concerns about ongoing delays and the veracity of the figures quoted regarding processing times. What the Senator is speaking about makes sense with regard to transferability where there are delays. I will ask the Tánaiste to come back to verify the five working days as reported by the National Vetting Bureau.