Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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98. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons on a list in 2017 to be cleared of Garda vetting for the purpose of working in early years services. [20639/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, Garda vetting is conducted by the National Vetting Bureau on behalf of relevant organisations that are registered with the Bureau whose employees, paid or otherwise, are carrying out any work or activity, a necessary and regular part of which consists mainly of the person having access to, or contact with, children or vulnerable persons. It is a service designed to enhance the protection of children and vulnerable persons. The Garda National Vetting Bureau carries out this function in accordance with the provisions of the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 to 2016.

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 significant 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 last year I commenced the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 to 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. The e-vetting system is available to all registered organisations and the Garda Authorities are ready to assist those organisations who are not yet using the e-vetting system 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.

While the Deputy will appreciate that it is not possible to estimate in advance the number of applications that may be processed overall or in respect of a particular group, I would not that note that in recent years in excess of 350,000 vetting applications have been processed per annum by the Garda authorities.