Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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Garda vetting is a pre-employment check carried out if a prospective employee, volunteer or student on placement will have unsupervised access to children or vulnerable adults. There is no proposal to extend this category of employee.

Garda vetting provides for the disclosure by the Garda Central Vetting Unit (GCVU) to the prospective employer of details of prosecutions and convictions of the candidate. It is a matter for the employer to assess the implications of the information before a decision is taken on the candidate's suitability to take up duty.

The Office of the Minister for Children in my Department, the HSE, the Voluntary Hospitals and the following bodies funded from the Health vote are registered with the GCVU: Health information and Quality Authority; Mental Health Commission; Ombudsman for Children; Health & Social Care Professionals' Council. The other Bodies funded from the Health vote are not registered as their employees do not have unsupervised access to children or vulnerable adults.

All nursing homes in Ireland have access to Garda vetting services under the auspices of Nursing Homes Ireland; home care providers under the auspices of the Irish Private Home Care Association IPHCA; all nursing agencies, locum agencies and out-sourced employers and contractors to the health service under an umbrella body known as the National Recruitment Federation.

The Report of the Working Group on Gárda Vetting (2004) noted that vetting is not a substitute for good human resource management policy in relation to the recruitment and selection of staff and volunteers; and that a proper selection process is one of the most effective means of evaluating an applicant's suitability and deterring potential abusers. It recognised vetting as a further protection measure to children and vulnerable adults.