Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Question 404: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will take immediate steps to ensure that a mandatory obligation is placed on every organisation working with children to carry out comprehensive vetting procedures on the employment or contracting of staff. [14207/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Ensuring the protection, health and welfare of children is a key concern for the Government, for parents, for agencies that work with children and for society generally and I assure the Deputy that the Government is determined to do all that we can to keep our children and vulnerable adults safe. In the education sector, vetting is currently available in respect of prospective employees of children in detention schools as well as special needs assistants, SNAs, and bus escorts to children with special needs. My colleague, Deputy Brian Lenihan, Minister of State with special responsibility for children, announced a doubling of the number of staff employed in the Garda central vetting unit, which has been relocated to Thurles under the Government's decentralisation programme in order to ensure it they can handle a greater volume of requests from employers. 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, bus drivers and others working with children, whether on a full-time or part-time basis.

As a first step in the expansion of services provided by the vetting unit, it is proposed that new staff employed in the 2006-07 school year will be vetted.

In the case of new teachers, vetting will form part of the process of the registration by the newly established Teaching Council. The council will be responsible for submitting the applications to the vetting unit. In the case of non-teaching staff, it will be the responsibility of the relevant school authorities, including vocational education committees where appropriate, to submit the applications.

My Department is engaged in discussions with the relevant interests — school management authorities, unions, the Teaching Council and the vetting unit — on the procedures and processes which will apply in relation to the vetting of persons in the education sector. Guidelines for school authorities are being prepared and will be issued shortly.