Plea over vetting of children’s workers

REVELATIONS that a sex offender was employed as a bus driver for special needs pupils have prompted calls for the Government to introduce mandatory garda background checks on everyone working with children.

Bus Éireann yesterday terminated the contract with the company which employed convicted sex offender Michael O’Brien.

O’Brien, 43, served a two-year sentence after he was convicted in 2002 of sexually assaulting a teenage girl two years previously. He originally faced nine charges but seven were withdrawn and he was cleared on one.

It is understood the owner of the bus, which transported children to St Francis’s Special Needs School in Portlaoise, was a relative.

Children’s groups last night criticised the Government and said the revelations showed how exposed youngsters were to potential abuse.

Barnardos director of advocacy Norah Gibbons said: “Our children deserve to be protected from all forms of abuse. And in the case of children with special needs, who are even more vulnerable, that onus is even greater.”

The Garda Vetting Unit, which handles around 100,000 applications a year, is being expanded from 13 to 30 personnel. The expanded unit will be capable of carrying out criminal checks on anyone who has substantial unsupervised access to children, Minister of State Brian Lenihan said during a recent Dáil debate.

However, it is not mandatory except for health service employees and some childcare workers. This is to be extended to include new teachers and other school employees, to be followed by all other primary and post-primary teachers, administration staff, caretakers and voluntary workers.

The Department of Justice said last night it was considering legislation to extend mandatory vetting but nothing has yet been decided.

The bus company that employed O’Brien was in breach of contract because it failed to list him as one of its drivers, Bus Éireann said yesterday. All contractors must provide driver details, though they are not subject to mandatory criminal checks.

O’Brien’s employment as a driver only emerged after he was photographed picking up children from St Francis’s Special Needs School in Portlaoise.

A Bus Éireann spokeswoman said: “Clearly this can happen but the minute we found out about it, we took corrective action.”

Barnardos urged the Government to introduce more stringent procedures to make garda background checks mandatory for everyone working with children, both professionals and volunteers, including those in non-childcare posts.

The ISPCC called for the vetting of all those wishing to work with children to be placed on a legislative footing.

Information on those identified as a potential risk to children, who have not been convicted, should also be recorded and made available as part of the vetting process, the ISPCC believes.