Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 188: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform if any special measures or redeployment is planned to deal with the backlog in the Garda vetting unit for the clearing of persons who have secured posts in children's services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40912/10]

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. Since 2004 the service has been, and continues to be, extended to organisations working with children and/or vulnerable adults. Over that period there has been a substantial increase in the numbers of vetting applications received by the GCVU. In 2007 it received 187,864, rising to 218,404 in 2008. In 2009 it received over 246,000 applications. At present, there are approximately 60,000 vetting applications in the course of being processed.

I am informed by the Garda Authorities that the current average processing time for vetting applications received at the GCVU is approximately 12 weeks. The allocation of Garda resources, including personnel, is a matter for the Garda Commissioner. Due to the high volume of applications, an additional ten persons have recently been recruited to the Vetting Unit on a temporary basis. In addition, overall staffing arrangements at the Unit are kept under review.