Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)
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Question 304: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of applications waiting to be processed at Thurles vetting unit, County Tipperary; the average waiting time for vetting; the actions being taken to tackle the backlog, if any; the consequences of a lengthy waiting time for those who apply; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26790/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The Garda Central Vetting Unit (GCVU) provides employment vetting for a large number of organisations in Ireland registered with the Gardaí for this purpose and which employ persons in a full-time, part-time, voluntary or training capacity to positions where they would have substantial, unsupervised access to children and/or vulnerable adults. The GCVU has managed a substantial increase over recent years in the numbers of vetting applications it receives - 187,864 in 2007; 218,404 in 2008 and 246,194 in 2009. At present, there are approximately 65,000 vetting applications in the course of being processed.

The processing time for vetting applications fluctuates during the year due to seasonal demands when the volume of applications received from certain sectors can increase. Additional time may be required to process an individual vetting application in cases where clarification is required as to the details provided or where other enquiries need to be made, for example, when the person in question has lived and worked abroad. There will always be a reasonably significant time period required to process a vetting application. However, the Gardaí make every effort to reduce this to the minimum possible consistent with carrying out the necessary checks. I am informed by the Garda Authorities that the current average processing time for vetting applications received at the GCVU is in the region of 10 to 12 weeks given that demand is particularly high at present.

The allocation of Garda resources, including personnel, is a matter for the Garda Commissioner. An additional five persons were assigned to the Vetting Unit recently, bringing the total to 83 personnel currently assigned there, including six Gardaí and 77 Garda civilian personnel. A further five additional personnel are being recruited on a temporary basis and it is intended that these persons will commence work shortly. Overall, this represents a very significant increase in the level of personnel assigned to the unit, which stood at only 13 before the current process of development in Garda vetting began in 2005.