2026-01-27

147. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration his plans to simplify the administrative burden placed on volunteers through Garda vetting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6085/26]

The National Vetting Bureau and the Garda vetting Act have been in place for about 14 years. Has the Minister any plans to simplify the administrative burden placed on volunteers and employees through Garda vetting and the bureau itself? Will he make a statement on that given the length of time it has been in place?

The primary purpose of vetting carried out by the National Vetting Bureau is to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults. This requires a robust Garda vetting process that reassures the public, and in particular parents, that appropriate checks are conducted on people who are seeking or taking positions of trust. The Government is aware that concerns have been raised regarding certain aspects of the vetting process, and we have listened carefully to the views of the sporting and voluntary sectors. In this regard, I am aware that aspects of the current voting system result in a highly segmented process. Furthermore, we believe that the vetting system should be updated to ensure vetting is portable. Further to the work carried out by the Garda vetting review group, steps are being taken to implement a number of key changes to the vetting process that will ensure it remains robust and effective, while improving service to customers. In practice, and subject to general requirement that vetting be renewed every three years, this will mean that when a person is vetted for the work they do, will be doing or are likely to be involved in as part of their employment or volunteering within identified risk categories, further vetting will not be required if the person moves to another role within the same risk category. These changes will require amending legislation and updating technical systems to support the revised approach. The Government is working closely with An Garda Síochána to improve the vetting process, and we look forward to updating the House in due course on progress in this matter. Our aim is to ensure Garda vetting systems continue to be fit for purpose, robust and future-proofed while continuing to protect children and vulnerable adults. We are committed to proceeding with these changes to make the process more efficient for volunteers and organisations without compromising essential safeguards that protect those in our care.

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I agree with him that the system was designed to protect young people and vulnerable adults and I appreciate that must be robust. However, as he has said, it has been segmented and we need a portable system. He mentioned that steps have to be taken. We produced a Bill in 2022 and we were told by the Minister standing in at the time that a body had been investigating the practicalities for some time. We all know that people are getting vetted three, four, five, maybe even six times in the one year for their employment, the Teaching Council or the rowing, football or soccer club. All of this has to be done, to use the Minister of State's word, in a "segmented" way. The Government has known about this for years now. It knows the administrative burden is far too much. It can be made simpler. What I want to know, and the Minister will forgive me for asking the question, is, given it has known about it for so long: when is this legislation going to be produced?

There are changes that will be made to resolve the Deputy’s concerns and ours. We have listened to the views that have been carefully expressed, we have met directly with the Sports Federation of Ireland on the matter, and our Department has also received correspondence from a range of voluntary organisations informing us of their views. We are aware that concerns have been raised as to the reliability of a portability approach and in this regard we note that where a teacher is vetted, the Teaching Council permits him or her to move from one school to another without revetting. All that is required is that a teacher is registered to revet every three years on a scheduled basis. Consequently, if this system of portability is safe for engagement with our schoolchildren, we believe it will also be safe for broader application. Drawing on the work of the vetting review group, we are committed to ensuring the vetting process is administratively proportionate while remaining robust and fully focused on the core purpose of protecting children and vulnerable adults.

What we proposed almost four years ago was that the chief bureau officer would establish what we call a register of general consents. The Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers,OPLA, gave great assistance so that people would remain on the register for three years, give their permission and, under section 6, give a general consent to the disclosure of vetting information to any organisation that might require it. At the time, the Minister said the Department must investigate any revetting impact upon constitutional rights, employment law and the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977. That is all fine. However, we have a situation with junior parkruns for example, which take place all over the country, where volunteers stand in and keep an eye on the route to make sure children run around in the correct way. There is a danger that this may be cancelled because of an ultra-conservative approach being taken where even someone who stands there for 15 minutes on a Sunday morning would have to be Garda vetted. A register of general consent would avoid this, make it simpler and encourage people to volunteer because a lot of people are put off and groan when they hear they have to be revetted for the second, third or fourth time in a year.

The problems that are caused by Garda vetting delays to community organisations, sports clubs and childcare services, among others, have been well set out by Deputy Daly. People will agree that the most bizarre revelation has been that Garda vetting is actually affecting the gardaí themselves. The Minister confirmed to me today that some Garda recruits who were due to attest from Templemore next week will not be able to even start work, because, bizarrely, their Garda vetting has not been completed yet. That is crazy. The Minister said it is better to conduct the vetting in parallel to the training rather than delay someone starting. What happens if it turns out that somebody is going through training, having access to the Garda Training College and Garda stations and then ultimately fails the vetting process? I am told, for example, that a Garda trainee was actually sacked last week, just ten days before their graduation, because they failed vetting. I do not know how serious the issue was in that regard, but I ask the Minister of State to confirm whether that is true and whether he would agree it is very serious. More importantly, will he outline what the Government plans to do about it?

In general terms and taking on board what Deputy Daly said about the multiplicity of factors, I want to speak about turnaround times. I am advised by the Garda National Vetting Bureau that the target turnaround time for organisations using the eVetting system is five to ten working days for over 85% of vetting applications received. I am informed that 85% of vetting applications are processed within nine working days, which is within the target turnaround time. There are a number of factors outside An Garda Síochána's control that can impact on the timeline for individual applications. These include, for example, where a person has lived overseas. In such cases, An Garda Síochána must contact law enforcement partners in the relevant countries to obtain information, and this takes additional time. Vetting is carried out by An Garda Síochána in accordance with the national vetting bureau Acts 2012 to 2016. I beg the Chair’s indulgence to reply to Deputy Carthy on trainees, which he raised. In general, all trainees are vetted in advance of entering Templemore. No candidate is allowed to enter the Garda College without a level of vetting that allows the Commissioner to be confident they are of good character. However, in recognition of the fact that the completion of the full vetting process before admission to training was delaying member recruitment inordinately, An Garda Síochána has introduced a resequencing of vetting. As Deputies are aware, this resequencing means that before a candidate can enter the college, they will have fully completed stage 1 and sometimes stage 2 of the three-stage process. The remaining stages are completed while they undergo training in Templemore and prior to their attestation as members of An Garda Síochána. No one is attested as a member of An Garda Síochána unless and until they have been fully vetted.

Was someone sacked just ten days before graduation?

We do not have any knowledge of that, but if the Deputy wants to writes to us about it, we can look into it.

We can deal with that at another time.