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.