Rigorous vetting needed

The disclosure that almost 4,000 people who applied for sensitive State jobs working with children were disqualified, because they have criminal convictions, is grounds for alarm rather than complacency.

The vetting system is obviously inadequate, because a criminal record is essentially the only criterion being used by the new Garda vetting unit set up in January to screen applications for posts dealing with children.

In the case of clerical abuse a great many of the more notorious offenders exposed in recent years did not have criminal records. Indeed, they were essentially moved around to ensure theyat did not get such records.