Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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441. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 has no provision for the acceptance of police clearance certification from other EU countries resulting in great difficulties for Irish charitable bodies providing supports for children and vulnerable young adults with special needs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38773/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 provides that before employing a person in work or activities relating to children or vulnerable persons, the organisation concerned must obtain a vetting disclosure in respect of the prospective employee. The disclosure must be obtained from the Garda Vetting Bureau.

The Act provides in section 2 that the Bureau may disclose criminal offences, including a record of a person’s convictions outside of the State. It is not possible for domestic legislation to determine whether a police clearance certificate given to a foreign national would or would not meet with the vetting requirements in Irish Law. In any case, it is a fundamental principal of the Act that a vetting disclosure is not provided to the employee for transmission to the employer, as such a procedure would be open to abuse. Under the provisions of the Act the vetting disclosure must be obtained directly from the Garda Vetting Bureau. The provisions in the Act apply equally to persons who are nationals and to persons who are non-nationals.

It would not be feasible to allow that persons resident abroad could bypass the vetting procedures based on a police certificate provided by them, because such persons may have spent previous periods of employment in Ireland or in a third country where they have obtained criminal convictions not recorded in their country of residence.