Calls for extra staff to tackle Garda vetting

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 Children’s Rights Alliance said the immediate need for more staff at the Garda Central Vetting Unit (GCVU) had been highlighted by figures which reveal an increase of 30,000 applications compared with the figures for 2007.

As of the end of last year about 10,000 cases remained to be processed, but gardaí said the “vast majority” of those applications had been cleared by the end of January. There is no detail as to any backlog, but chief executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance (CRA) Jillian Van Turnhout said the GCVU needed additional resources, as many organisations have not done retrospective vetting on staff.