Fiona O'Malley (Dún Laoghaire, Progressive Democrats)
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Question 195: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the Garda clearance process; and the reason for the delays and discommoding this causes. [25072/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I assume the Deputy's Question relates to the Garda vetting service provided in respect of prospective employees recruited to work with children and vulnerable adults.

As a means of promoting the safety and security of these vulnerable client groups, criminal history vetting is conducted by the Garda Central Vetting Unit (GCVU) on behalf of, inter alia, registered organisations which recruit personnel to work in a substantial, unsupervised capacity with children and vulnerable adults.

Vetting applications are submitted in writing to the GCVU by the human resource department of the registered employer/agency. In response, following an interrogation of its criminal history information against the personal details supplied, the GCVU issues a reply to the requesting organisation disclosing, as appropriate, criminal conviction and related information in respect of the subject of the vetting. Recruitment and selection decisions remain at all times with the recruiting organisation.

The average turnaround time for processing valid vetting requests received by the GCVU is appropriately four weeks. I do not consider that this average turnaround time constitutes a delay. Moreover, recruiting organisations are aware of the processing timeframe and are advised to factor it into their recruitment and selection processes.