I am informed by the Garda authorities that there have been 3,332 applications so far this year related to the Department of Social Protection and Fás. Approximately 2700 of these have been dealt with by the Garda Central Vetting Unit (GCVU) and notifications have been returned to the relevant organisations. Of the remainder, 543 will be completed shortly. There are 90 remaining applications in respect of which further inquiries are necessary and these await clearance.
More generally, the number of vetting applications each year has risen from 187,864 in 2007 to 327,903 in 2012. It is expected that there will be upwards of 350,000 applications this year. The current average processing time for applications is approximately 9 weeks from date of receipt. However, seasonal fluctuations and the necessity to seek additional information on particular applications can result in this processing time being exceeded on occasion. In the interest of fairness and equity, Garda vetting applications are processed in chronological order based on the date of receipt in the GCVU. All organisations registered for Garda Vetting are aware of the processing time-frames for the receipt of Garda vetting and have been advised to factor this into their recruitment and selection process.
It is essential that the GCVU has the resources required to perform this most critical of roles effectively and I have given this matter particular priority. In that regard I have been actively engaged with my colleague the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. As a result of that engagement, I am pleased to say that the Commissioner has confirmed to me that there are now 134 whole-time equivalent staff (130 civilians and 4 members of the Garda Síochána) assigned to the GCVU, some 41 of whom have been redeployed from elsewhere in the public service since the end of March 2013. Some of these redeployed staff have only recently completed their training in the vetting process, and the full impact of their work will be seen in the coming weeks. Furthermore, I have also recently received sanction for the redeployment of 40 additional staff to the GCVU. This brings the total number of staff in that service to over 170 which, when compared to the average staff allocation of 78 at the Unit over the past two and a half years, represents an increase of 117%.
In the context of streamlining the process, an e-vetting solution is being developed. This will facilitate the processing of all applications in an e-format, thus removing the time-consuming current process of managing all applications received at the section in manual format. The initial phase of testing this e-vetting system will take place in the fourth quarter of 2013. It is expected that all of these measures will contribute to further improvements in the vetting service.
