Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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633. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of departmental staff with access to the primary online database who have received Garda Síochána vetting for handing data relating to vulnerable children; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34084/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Ensuring the protection, health and welfare of children is a key concern for the Government, for parents, for agencies that work with children and for society generally and I can assure the Deputy that the Government is determined to do all that we can to keep our children and vulnerable adults safe. It is Department policy that access within the Department to POD data is limited to the POD team which is currently less than 15 people. The members of the team are required to sign a POD Data Protection Undertaking in which they undertake to only access individual POD records as required for the processing of POD. All Departmental staff with access to the Primary Online Database are Civil Servants. All Civil Servants are Garda vetted prior to being appointed in the Department through the Public Appointments Service.