Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, for coming to the House to respond to this important matter of the Garda vetting unit in Thurles, County Tipperary. I specifically refer to the recently allocated responsibility to manage an element of the updated child care regulations.

On 9 October last, the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, announced welcome new child care regulations. They were long overdue. This was informed by a wider consultation process that had taken place over a number of years. One widely welcomed aspect of the regulations was that staff, including voluntary staff, of pre-schools and crèches would have to be vetted. Surprisingly, crèche owners were only given until the end of this year to prepare for the new regulations which were due to come into force on 1 January next.

It occurred to me at the time that the vetting requirement, in particular, would put a great deal of pressure on the staff of the Garda vetting unit in Thurles. Accordingly, I tabled a question to the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform inquiring whether additional resources would be made available to the Garda vetting unit to allow it to carry out its additional responsibilities. The Tánaiste stated in reply that staffing levels at the Garda vetting unit were "adequate to meet existing and foreseeable demand".

Not long after, a letter was issued to a crèche owner in Dublin from a Garda inspector which stated:

Unfortunately, due to current agreed commitments to other organisations who have been waiting for Garda vetting services for some time, we cannot extend vetting to your organisation at present.

As I feared, crèches and pre-schools applying for vetting to the Garda vetting unit in Thurles would not be accommodated. The minimum time for processing a vetting application is two months. From October to December is only a three-month period so I did not see how it would be possible for the Garda vetting unit to process all the applications. Without these applications being processed, crèches and pre-schools would be considered to be in breach the law, not through their own fault but because of the Government's failure.

I read in The Sunday Business Post that the regulations will not now be implemented until September 2007. It is unacceptable that a Minister should announce regulations but not put in place the necessary resources to ensure those who are affected by them can operate efficiently. In effect, the Minister has not thought through the short timeframe provided for in the regulations.

Staff in Health Service Executive offices who handle child care inspections need to be trained. It is my understanding that no training has been scheduled before Christmas so the training will take place in the new year at the earliest. Surely the Government knew that when it published the new child care regulations. The situation is in disarray. I invite the Minister of State to explain how this has happened and to give an assurance on the matter so that the staff needed in the Garda vetting unit in Thurles are made available. Children will be affected by this lack of provision.

The requirement to vet staff is essential and one with which we all agree. Resources must be put in place to ensure this takes place. It is unacceptable that the implementation of the regulations has been postponed rather than the necessary staff provided. If it were the case that the postponement was until March, for instance, one could accept that the Minister may have made a mistake, but that is not the case. I look forward to the response of the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern. I have major concerns about this matter, the handling of which has been less than satisfactory. I am being kind in using that expression.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I speak on behalf of the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform on this important topic of vetting in the pre-school sector. I trust the House will allow me to address some of the apparently erroneous assumptions made in the matter raised on the Adjournment.

It is the case that the coming into operation of the Child Care (Pre-School Services) Regulations 2006 has been deferred from 2 January, 2007 to 3 September, 2007. These regulations provide, inter alia, that a person carrying on a pre-school service shall ensure appropriate vetting of all staff, students and volunteers who have access to a child by acquiring Garda vetting. However, it is not correct to state that this deferment is the result of insufficient human resources or processing capacities within the Garda central vetting unit.

To facilitate the roll-out of Garda vetting to an increasing number of sectors from the first quarter of this year, staffing of the Garda central vetting unit has been more than doubled. Thanks to these additional resources, the Garda central vetting unit has the capacity to expand its vetting service to the pre-school sector on a phased basis during 2007. The reason for the deferment of the coming into operation of the 2006 regulations relates to the organisation of the pre-school sector itself rather than anything to do with the Garda central vetting unit. For each sector requiring vetting, whether it be the education sector, the health sector or whatever, the Garda central vetting unit provides its vetting service via a sectoral central point of contact, the task of which is to process vetting applications centrally for that sector.

This arrangement is not simply an administrative convenience, rather it is an important element in the professionalisation of the vetting process by which vetting application forms can be properly and attentively processed and the criminal record disclosure process properly managed. In this regard, there is a huge onus on each sector to ensure the proper checking of applicants' identities and that the information supplied on vetting application forms is accurate and honest. If these steps are not performed diligently, then the benefits of vetting are set at nought. To facilitate best practice in this regard, the Garda central vetting unit delivers comprehensive training to the sectoral central points of contact as an important means of promoting vetting as an aid to child protection, but only when properly managed.

The sectoral central point of contact system is in place for all the sectors to which vetting has already been extended, including the primary and post-primary education sectors, the youth work sector, the care home sector and so on. This approach has proven its worth from both the perspective of the Garda central vetting unit and the sectors themselves, not least in terms of eliminating duplication and preventing waste in the processing of incorrectly completed vetting application forms.

The Office of the Minister for Children, which has responsibility for the pre-school sector, is represented on the multi-agency implementation group overseeing the roll-out of Garda vetting nationally. That office is aware of and in agreement with the principle of a sectoral central point of contact. To that end, the Office of the Minister for Children remains engaged in the process of identifying and developing such a point of contact for the pre-school sector.

In this regard, the Tánaiste understands that discussions are ongoing with the Health Service Executive and a number of umbrella bodies for the sector. Unfortunately, this process of administrative development has taken longer than originally intended, but the Tánaiste understands that the Office of the Minister for Children is determined to ensure appropriate processing systems are in place as soon as possible. In any event, on behalf of the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, I state unambiguously that Garda vetting will be extended to the pre-school sector as soon as appropriate liaison mechanisms for the sector are put in place, including the identification of a sectoral central point of contact to manage vetting applications and disclosures thereon.

On the question of staffing, the human resource requirements of the Garda central vetting unit are monitored on an ongoing basis to ensure a match between vetting demand and processing capacities. The additional human and other resources already provided to the unit have been more than adequate to meet demand to date, and the Garda authorities have not made any further additional staffing requests to the Tánaiste. However, I assure the Senator that should additional staffing requirements arise, the Tánaiste has indicated his willingness to consider any such application in a favourable light.

Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for clarifying the position. It is worse than I thought. It is a major administrative error which should have been spotted last October. I find it difficult to believe the Office of the Minister for Children could not have foreseen this problem. It is unacceptable that it has left it until the last minute to deal with the issue and also, in the Minister of State's response, there is not one reference to the needs of children.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I will convey to the Minister what has been said. To be fair the reply is about——

Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)
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It is a total cop-out.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I will not comment on that one way or the other. If I came to the House with a six or ten-page reply——

Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)
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One line would have been enough.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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—— on the needs of children, the Senator would ask me to get to the point and give an answer relevant to the question. I will not comment on the other matter as I am not as knowledgeable on it as the Senator. Therefore, I will reserve comment on whether it is a cop-out or otherwise.

Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State.