Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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302. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality further to the budget announcement, when extra staff will be appointed to assist with Garda vetting; the number of extra staff that will be appointed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51779/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I have been actively engaged on this issue with my colleague the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. As a result of that engagement I am pleased to say that the Garda Commissioner has confirmed to me that there are now 136 whole time equivalent staff assigned to the GCVU, some 41 of whom have been redeployed from elsewhere in the public service since the end of March 2013. Some of these redeployed staff have only recently completed their training in the vetting process and the full impact of their work will be seen in the coming weeks. Furthermore, I have also received sanction for the redeployment of 40 additional staff to the GCVU. This brings the total number of staff in that service to over 170, more than double that of the average allocation of 78 staff at the Unit over the past two and a half years.