Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the shortest, longest and median turnaround time for Garda clearance; if he will outline the efforts he is making to ensure prompt turnaround of applications, with particular reference to those of potential staff members of health care facilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6949/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Garda Central Vetting Unit (GCVU) provides employment vetting for approximately 20,000 organisations in Ireland which employ personnel to work in a full time part time, voluntary or student capacity with children and or vulnerable adults and who are registered with the Unit for this purpose. The Unit processed approximately 328,000 vetting applications on behalf of these organisations in 2012. The Deputy may wish to note that in order to observe equity and fairness in respect of all applicants for Garda vetting, the standard procedure is that all applications from no matter what organisation are processed in chronological order from their date of receipt. Accordingly, there is no specific protocol in place for the management of vetting applications pertaining to potential staff members of health care facilities.

The information requested by the Deputy would require the diversion of staff resources which could not be justified in the context of the necessity to address the existing case load of vetting applications. Notwithstanding that, the average processing time for vetting procedures is currently 8 to10 weeks. However, seasonal fluctuations and the necessity to seek additional information on particular applications can result in this processing time being exceeded on occasion. All organisations are aware of the processing time frames for the receipt of Garda vetting and have been advised to factor this into their recruitment and selection processes.

It is my objective that processing times should be kept to a minimum, while maintaining the overall integrity of the vetting system. In that regard, following discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, I am pleased to announce that sanction has been granted for an additional 25 staff to be re-deployed from the Department of Agriculture to the Garda Central Vetting Unit in the near future.