Some of Ireland’s biggest employers have been written to by the Data Protection Commissioner in order to assess their compliance after a worrying trend by some employers to force staff and applicants for positions to access and reveal sensitive personal data under Section 4 of the Data Protection Acts held by the Garda Vetting Unit.

Minister admits delays in filling child inspector posts nationally

The TUI has hit out at a possible “absurd effect” of new national vetting legislation that will make it illegal, for a period of time, for schools to employ new teachers in any capacity.

There is still no date for the mandatory vetting of organisations working with children to come into force, with the Garda Central Vetting Unit inundated with applications in advance of new rules being introduced.

The Garda unit charged with vetting employees to work with children and vulnerable adults is to get 25 extra staff, Justice Minister Alan Shatter has announced.

Twenty five additional staff are to be redeployed to the Garda Central Vetting Unit.

Employers who work with children and vulnerable adults must be aware that vetting rules are not as robust as they should be and they may not have the “complete picture” about employees, according to the Department of Health.

Caretakers, cooks, administrators, and bus drivers who work in organisations with school-going children will not have to be vetted under proposed legislation.

THE HSE cannot be sure all agency workers placed in hospitals have undergone Garda clearance or tests for blood-born occupational health conditions such as Hepatitis B and C.

MORE than 160 people set to work with vulnerable patients in hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities were blocked from taking up posts after garda checks.

TEMPORARY staff hired by the Health Service Executive to administer a Government supplementary welfare allowance started work last week without receiving Garda vetting.

GARDA vetting checks on key health workers are taking up to six months, despite the same probes being carried out in Britain within just 10 days.

GAA chiefs are to issue a directive that every club and county board in the country must appoint a children’s officer in the coming year.

THE Garda body responsible for the vetting of people working with children is in urgent need of more staff after dealing with a record 218,404 applications last year.

The Garda Central Vetting Unit (GCVU) was established in 2002 with the aim of vetting those intending to work with children or other vulnerable people.

THERE can be few greater leaps of faith than the one involved in entrusting a young, beloved and vulnerable child to the care of a hired stranger.

THE Garda vetting of employees and volunteers can be a drawn-out process involving bundles of paper going back and forth, for a relatively simple check.

SPORTING organisations submitted just 529 applications for vetting to the gardaí in the last two years, despite the many thousands of employees and volunteers working in the area.

A HIGH level meeting is to take place next week to decide how best to introduce a system to vet staff working with pre-school children.

TEACHERS will have to report suspected abuse or other issues affecting student welfare under a draft code of conduct being considered for the profession.

A NUMBER of childcare facilities and crèches cannot get their staff vetted by gardaí because of a backlog in the system, the Labour Party warned yesterday.

SCHOOLS must continue carrying out their own background checks on job applicants in support of garda vetting which can only detail criminal convictions, Children’s Minister Brian Lenihan said yesterday.

AS thousands of young people return to school this week, along with 60,000 tiny tots in the classroom for the first time, parents will no doubt be disturbed to learn that nearly half the new teachers starting work are still awaiting garda clearance.

MORE THAN 1,000 prospective teachers may be precluded from taking up jobs when schools re-open in September as they have not yet sought garda clearance under strict new vetting arrangements.

TEACHERS may have pending prosecutions against them considered when they are applying to be registered, under vetting procedures being considered by the Teaching Council.

Every school in the country must rise to the challenge of educating students with special needs or English language difficulties, it was warned today.

An additional 1,500 primary school teachers have been employed over the past year to help cater for children with special needs, it was confirmed today.

ONLY one in eight companies which provide security guards and door supervisors had been issued with a licence to trade by the deadline date of the end of last month.

ALL people working with children will face stringent background checks from January, more than 16 months after the Government first announced extended vetting controls.

THE Government needs to legislate for the mandatory vetting of all people with unsupervised access to children, a leading rights group said yesterday.

IRISH children are being denied their right to full protection by the Government’s lack of proper vetting of school staff for criminal records, the Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan has claimed.

It is completely unacceptable that a year after being announced by the Government, garda background checks are still not being carried out on workers in schools, community groups or the childcare sector.

GARDA background checks are still not being carried out on workers in schools, community groups or the childcare sector, almost a year after the Government announced an expanded vetting service.

Junior Minister Brian Lenihan has announced plans to double staff numbers at the Garda Central Vetting Unit in the coming months.

IRELAND will become a haven for paedophiles because of poor clearance procedures for child workers as British regulations are set to be tightened, the Government was warned last night.

PARENTS have called on the Government to set up a long-awaited clearance system for people working with children.

THE ISPCC has reiterated calls for the introduction of vetting procedures for people working in the voluntary sector.

IRISH children are vulnerable to a Soham-style tragedy because vetting procedures in our schools and sporting groups are grossly inadequate, the ISPCC warned last night.