Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 76: To ask the Minister for Education and Science when the legislation to establish a register of persons considered unsafe to work with children will be published; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27569/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Ensuring the protection, health and welfare of children is a key concern for the Government, parents, agencies that work with children and society generally and I can assure the Deputy that the Government is determined to do all that we can to keep our children and vulnerable adults safe.

My colleague, the Minister with responsibility for children, Deputy Brian Lenihan, announced a doubling of the number of staff employed in the unit to ensure that they can handle a greater volume of requests from employers. The unit will commence the augmentation of its existing vetting arrangements upon decentralisation targeted for mid-November this year.

The provision of additional staff resources will enable the Garda Síochána's vetting services to be extended to all persons working with children and vulnerable adults. This will include teachers, caretakers and others working with children.

In the education sector, vetting is currently available in respect of requests for clearance from my Department in relation to bus escorts and special needs assistants provided to children with special educational needs, and to staff working in children's detention schools.

It is worth pointing out that, irrespective of whatever additional arrangements may be introduced in this area in the future, criminal record checks, while being capable in appropriate circumstances of making a significant contribution to ensuring that unsuitable persons do not secure positions of trust, are not the sole answer to ensuring applicants' suitability for posts.

There will continue to be a particular onus of care on employers to maintain good employment practice both during the recruitment stage, for example, good interviewing practice and checking references, and in ensuring adequate supervision arrangements post-recruitment.

In relation to a register of persons unsafe to work with children, the Deputy will be aware that the working group on Garda vetting included in its report a recommendation that my Department and the Department of Health and Children could give consideration to the development of non-Garda, employment-related vetting registers to provide information on those previously dismissed, suspended, moved or made redundant from posts for harming children or vulnerable adults in the health and education sectors. An implementation group has been established by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to ensure the delivery of the working group's recommendations and discussions between my Department and the Department of Health and Children are ongoing in that context. Although considerable preparatory work examining the issues relating to a pre-employment consultancy service, similar to that in Northern Ireland, has been undertaken by my Department, these discussions remain at an early stage. In addition, my Department will be convening meetings with the education partners in order to explore all the issues involved.

The teaching council also has a role here. Once it is formally established, the council will provide the teaching profession, both primary and post-primary, with the means to regulate itself and its functions will include maintaining a register of teachers and, if necessary, removing the names of those shown to be unfit to teach, including those unfit to teach by reason of the fact that they pose a threat to children.