Vetting bill criticised for leaving ‘blindspots’
Barnardos, the country’s largest children’s charity, made the claim after Justice Minister Alan Shatter confirmed the imminent National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill would leave certain areas unexamined.
Under the legislation, there will be a significant improvement in background checks for teachers, sports coaches, and medics who have a direct role with children.
Further checks on school janitors and caretakers will also occur, while “non-conviction data” and “soft information” will be made available to gardaí and potential employers.
However, due to what Mr Shatter said was the “impracticable” proposal to check every single person in groups or institutions who is likely to come into contact with youngsters, key areas will go unchanged.
These include childminders — just 1% of whom are currently vetted — and voluntary officials at underage sports and social clubs, who will not need to undergo any background examinations.
Barnardos head of advo-cacy Catherine Joyce said that despite the improvements within the draft law, there are serious problems with the blindspots it will fail to address.
“In the current draft of the vetting bill, volunteers are exempt from its provisions when their contact with children is on an ‘occasional basis’ at school, sports, or community events,” said Ms Joyce.
“However, ‘occasional’ is not defined in the bill and is therefore open to interpretation.
“Our fear is that this could potentially mean people who have access to children on a voluntary basis in schools and communities will not have to be Garda vetted.
“This could mean that some people who pose a risk to children might slip through the cracks.
“It would particularly allow potential predators to move around different organisations or communities without any information being available to gardaí. There are numerous cases that highlight the very real danger this could present for children.”
An Oireachtas committee was told by Mr Shatter on Wednesday that the blind-spots would be allowed as the existing Garda Vetting Unit does not have the resources to check every person involved in Ireland’s 18,000 underage groups.
“At the end of the day I don’t have an infinite amount of staff to do the work,” he said.
The near 100-strong unit is comprised mainly of full-time Garda civilian officers, while temporary staff are reassigned from departments.
