Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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104. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the reason there are delays to secure Garda clearance; if there are actions under way to reduce the waiting times; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31611/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I wish to inform the Deputy that there is no particular delay in the Garda employment vetting process; rather there has been a very significant improvement in vetting processing times in recent months.

I am informed by the Garda Authorities that at present 80 percent of vetting applications are processed by the Garda National Vetting Bureau in under five working days. This represents a dramatic improvement in turnaround times for the processing of vetting applications in recent years, falling from an average of 14 weeks in mid-2013. This improvement has come about as a result of an unprecedented investment by the Government and the Garda Authorities in providing this service, including an increase of over 80 percent in staffing levels and the roll out earlier this year of an e-Vetting system.

In April this year I commenced the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012-2016 and in tandem with that An Garda Síochána launched the e-Vetting system. E-Vetting facilitates the on-line processing of applications and this has significantly streamlined the vetting process and contributed to a sustained reduction in processing times for vetting applications. I am further informed by the Garda Authorities that the vast majority of vetting applications, over 85 percent of applications, now received by the Vetting Bureau are received and processed via the e-Vetting system.

One very important feature of the e-Vetting system is that the individual applicant can track the progress of their own vetting application on-line and can, therefore, see when their application has been processed and returned to the relevant registered organisation.

There are a small number of registered organisations who are not yet operating the e-Vetting system and continue to use the old paper format for applications. For vetting applications that continue to be submitted in paper format, the average turnaround time is in the order of four weeks from the receipt of the application by the Vetting Bureau and this represents a minimum time frame given the administrative input required. The Garda Authorities continue to work with the organisations who are not yet operating the e-Vetting system to encourage and support them to do so.

Processing times for any given application can be longer in individual cases when, for example, additional enquiries may be necessary or where errors have been made in the application. It is important to note that delays can also occur in other aspects of the application process which are outside of the control of the Garda Authorities, for example, in the submission or return of applications by the registered organisations.

The primary purpose of the vetting service is to seek to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults. Accordingly, the vetting process demands rigorous procedures to safeguard its integrity and to maintain the highest level of confidence by the public and organisations availing of the service. Any vetting process will take a certain minimum amount of time to complete and, taking into account the importance of protecting children and vulnerable adults while providing an effective and efficient service, the current processing period is not unreasonable.