John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 637: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to delays being experienced by people seeking Garda clearance to work with people with special needs and in particular students at university participating in this course who need Garda clearance to enable them to carry out work experience and complete their course, bearing in mind that 30% of their marks are obtained through their work experience; the period of time it takes to obtain this clearance from the date of application; and the steps he will take to improve this system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3637/08]

Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 641: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the delay in the vetting by the Gardaí of personnel being hired for the care of children and that certain special schools are suffering from staff shortages due to these delays; the additional resources he will provide to the Gardaí to enable such vetting to take place as quickly as possible; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3664/08]

John Cregan (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 642: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the delay in processing Garda clearances for prospective employees in the health care sector; if he will assist in having this process expedited; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3666/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 637, 641 and 642 together.

As the Deputies may be aware, since 2006, the Garda Central Vetting Unit (GCVU) has been engaged in a major expansion in the provision of its criminal history vetting service to all sectors and organisations involved in the recruitment of persons to work in a substantive, unsupervised capacity with children and vulnerable adults. At this stage, vetting has now been made available to a broad range of sectors, including health and social services; primary, secondary and tertiary education; pre-school and childcare; youth work; disability; care homes; and so on.

In order to meet the dramatically increased demand arising from such expansion, 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.

Finally, it is envisaged that a further allocation of personnel will be made in the coming months. In this respect, I am informed by the Garda authorities that Garda management are continually monitoring resource requirements within the GCVU so as to ensure a match between demand and supply in terms of the processing of vetting applications.