Babysitters and sports volunteers unvetted
Justice Minister Alan Shatter said problem areas may be left unchecked.
He was speaking during an Oireachtas committee meeting on proposed child safety legislation.
Mr Shatter said the legislation will significantly improve the oversight of teachers, sports coaches, medics, and other areas where staff work with young people.
However, he said it was not feasible to check every person working with kids.
“It is simply not practicable,” Mr Shatter said during a discussion on the potential legislative blindspots, noting there are roughly 18,000 groups in Ireland that work with children.
While there is a legal onus on these groups to ensure those officially working with children are vetted, voluntary or part-time workers in the groups who have no direct involvement with children do not have to undergo checks.
The matter will remain unchanged in the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill 2012 currently being passed into law, although a Department of Justice spokesperson said janitors and caretakers in schools will be vetted.
Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Niall Collins said while voluntary work with sports clubs automatically means there will be times when the person is “in contact with children” or will have access to changing rooms and showers, the area is exempt from checks.
This, he said, opened the possibility that “blindspots and loopholes can be exposed” by a small number of dangerous, unvetted people.
However, Mr Shatter said, it is impossible to examine every individual’s past.
Noting that the average garda vetting waiting time has fallen from 14 weeks before the last election to “four or five weeks” now, Mr Shatter said: “[If everyone was vetted], we could turn the waits into a four- to five-month delay. At the end of the day, I don’t have an infinite amount of staff to do the work.”
The matter was raised as umbrella group Start Strong said despite the popularity of childminders, just 1% of those looking after Irish preschool children undergo any vetting process.
“The vast majority of childminders who care for young children in their own homes operate without any supervision or support,” said acting director Toby Wolfe.
“It is unacceptable most paid childminders are exempt from regulation, inspection, child protection training, or even garda vetting.”
“Families have no assurance that childminders meet basic quality standards. While the inspection system itself needs reform, it is essential, nevertheless, that all paid childminders are subject to inspection and garda vetting.”
Start Strong based its 1% claim on research by Goodbody Economic Consultants, which said roughly 19,000 paid childminders work in Ireland with preschool children.
Of this figure, just 257 had undergone HSE and Garda-organised vetting by the end of last year.
