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.

“Voluntary organisations have been advised not to swamp the system,” she said. Ms Van Turnhout said there was also “no policy” on when people already vetted should have their applications reviewed or updated.

She said the GCVU staff were “exemplary”, but that in light of recent scandals there was a resource shortfall that needed to be addressed.

“Two years ago a lot of organisations were not able to apply for vetting,” she said. “We are widening the remit, which is right, but because of the demand most organisations are being advised only to have a policy for new or key individuals, but we have to deal with retrospective cases. Do we do right by our children now or wait for subsequent inquiries in years to come?”

The GCVU processes cases within five weeks on average, according to the force. But a Garda spokesman said there was no information as to whether additional staff had been provided to deal with the increased number of applications, or the number of people who were deemed unsafe to work with children, having been vetted by the unit.

The spokesman said: “Processing time fluctuates depending on seasonal demands, volumes received and the amount of enquiries it is necessary to conduct in external Garda districts in respect of any specific application and the number of previous addresses that the applicant has.”

Employers seeking to have new or existing staff vetted are notified of the need to provide a seven- to eight-week period in their recruitment procedure for character vetting.

While the number of applications received by the unit has increased, there are still fears that not enough people working with children are being vetted.