Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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82. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the reason for the delay in a person's Garda vetting application (details supplied). [10616/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will understand, the processing of vetting applications by the Garda National Vetting Bureau is an operational matter for the Garda Authorities and is carried out in accordance with the provisions of the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012-1016 and other relevant law. My Department has no role in the processing of individual vetting applications.

I am informed by the Garda Authorities that a vetting application was received by the National Vetting Bureau from a registered organisation in respect of the person referred to by the Deputy on 18 October 2016. The application was processed and returned to the liaison person in the relevant organisation on 28 February 2017. It will be necessary for the applicant to contact the registered organisation concerned to ascertain the current position.

Any vetting process will take a certain minimum amount of time to complete and, at present, 80% of overall vetting applications are being processed by the National Vetting Bureau in five working days. However, in some individual cases, additional enquiries may be necessary and this may result in longer processing times. The Deputy will appreciate that 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, given that the primary purpose of the Garda National Vetting Bureau is to seek to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults.