Central Vetting Unit - Vetting unit should be up and running

GIVEN the appalling revelations in recent years about child abuse in this country, it has to be of extremely serious concern that a comprehensive system of vetting the backgrounds of those involved with working with children is not yet in place.

At the moment, only prospective workers in the health service with unsupervised access to children and vulnerable adults, as well as those on some Department of Justice childcare schemes, are subjected to vetting for criminal convictions.

What it means is that too many people who work with children are outside the scope of the Garda Central Vetting Unit (CVU), and, consequently, vulnerable children can be preyed upon by those who have a disposition to abuse the trust placed in them.

People are now led to believe that the CVU will be extended, but this is a commitment which Children’s Minister Brian Lenihan made considerably more than 12 months ago - September 2004 to be precise.

Now, the extended vetting service will not happen until at least the end of January, which will then be more than 16 months later, and then only on a phased-in basis.

It seems ludicrous that most of the 31 new staff must now be trained, and a new computer system must be tested, all of which should have been done in the past 16 months.

When the extended vetting service is up and running, it will be essential that it encompasses all people working with children and that their backgrounds be thoroughly investigated.