Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 192: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform the current backlog of cases with the Garda Central Vetting Unit; the number of staff who are working in the unit; the target in terms of the timescale for clearances to be issued in future; when this target is expected to be reached; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47312/10]

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 60,000 vetting applications in the course of being processed.

The processing time for vetting applications fluctuates in line with periods of increased demand. Furthermore, 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. Registered organisations have been advised to take account of this in their recruitment and selection process. However, the Garda makes every effort to reduce the time 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 approximately ten weeks.

The allocation of Garda resources, including personnel, is a matter for the Garda Commissioner. There are currently a total of 89 gardaí and Garda civilian personnel assigned to the Vetting Unit, including an additional ten persons recruited to the Unit on a temporary basis due to the current high volume of applications. 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. In addition, overall staffing arrangements at the Unit are kept under review.