David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 603: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of Garda clearances processed each month in the past six months in respect of voluntary and social activity; the amount of time it takes to process such a clearance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3118/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Garda Central Vetting Unit (GCVU) makes criminal history vetting disclosures to registered organisations in respect of prospective employees, volunteers and students on placement who would have substantive, unsupervised access to children and vulnerable adults. Statistical information on the number of such vetting disclosures is not retained according to whether the activity in question is voluntary and/or social. However, in 2007, the total number of vetting applications received at the GCVU was 187,864, with a disaggregation for the final six months of 2007 is as follows:

In order to meet the increased demand arising from recent, major expansion in the provision of its vetting service, the GCVU has been in receipt of very significant additional resources. In particular, the human resource allocation to the Unit has increased from 13 originally to its current level of 63, comprising 5 members of the Garda Síochána at Inspector and Sergeant rank and 58 civil servants. Eleven of these personnel were made available as recently as last month, and when they have completed their induction and training it is anticipated that processing times will be reduced accordingly. In this regard, the current average processing time for valid vetting applications is approximately 7 weeks, but it is anticipated that this time period will be reduced to the normal, prevailing processing time of approximately 4 weeks.