Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 February 2024
4. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Minister for Justice further to Parliamentary Question No. 105 of 31 January 2024, why the Garda National Vetting Bureau does not have a role in vetting local authority housing applicants; if there is capacity within the Garda National Vetting Bureau to assist local Garda superintendents with this process; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8393/24]
View answerI thank the Minister for taking this question. I would like to know why the Garda National Vetting Bureau does not have a role in vetting local authority housing applicants. Is there capacity in the Garda National Vetting Bureau to assist local superintendents with this process? Is there a more efficient way to process Garda vetting for local authority applicants?
I thank the Deputy for asking this question. The primary purpose of employment vetting as carried out by the Garda National Vetting Bureau, GNVB, is to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults. I am sure the Deputy would agree on the vital importance of this task and the need for it to be carried out thoroughly and correctly. The National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 to 2016 provide that the vetting system is managed by the Garda National Vetting Bureau. As Minister of State, I have no role in the processing of individual vetting applications. I am advised by the Garda authorities that section 15 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1997 provides for local authorities to obtain criminal record checks in respect of persons applying for housing, including persons the authority believes may have been engaged in antisocial behaviour.
To be clear, no individual who applies for social housing in Ireland is subject to Garda vetting. However, a local authority may seek information in relation to any person seeking a house from specified persons under section 15 of the 1997 Act, including An Garda Síochána or from another local authority. It is important to note that this is not a vetting process as provided for under the National Vetting Bureau Acts. As I have said, the purpose of vetting is to act as an important component of safeguarding the most vulnerable members of society, that is children and vulnerable adults. As a consequence, I am advised that the GNVB has no role in the processing of local authority housing applications. As the Deputy can appreciate, the Garda Commissioner is responsible for directing operational policing matters, including deployment of Garda resources and we have no role in that matter.
This is probably where some of the confusion arises. I got in touch with my local authority, which said it is waiting for the Garda to get back to it about the vetting so tin order that a particular housing applicant can access a home. I have no reason whatsoever to criticise the Garda vetting process, which needs to be robust, especially when it comes to children and vulnerable adults. When it is left to individual superintendents to carry out this process or whatever it is called, this is causing delays for social applicants moving into their homes. It is having additional consequences. If social housing applicants have got a forever home with their local authority, they have to give a notice to quit to their own landlord to move out. What happens is that the Garda vetting does not come back, the landlord may ask them to leave and then that family may have to enter into homelessness. Is there a more efficient way to get this process done in a timelier manner that is good for everybody?
To be clear, people seeking social housing are not Garda vetted under the Garda vetting Act or in any other shape or form. The local authority can request information on a particular person in the context of the specified persons provisions under section 15 of the 1997 Act, including An Garda Síochána, or from another local authority, for that matter. There is a very specific set of circumstances where the local authority can seek information on somebody's criminal record if the person is being provided with housing. It is obviously an operational matter for the Garda Commissioner and An Garda Síochána about how quickly it can process that. I have no doubt that if people have lived in a particular town for their entire life, it is probably relatively straightforward, but if they have been moving around a bit, they will have to contact different superintendents and Garda station and it may be a slower process. I will certainly raise the matter with the Garda Commissioner. Just to be clear, however, people applying for social housing are not Garda vetted.
I thank the Minister of State. As I said, there is confusion. The applicants are coming back to me and saying they are awaiting Garda vetting.
The local authority has come back to me to say it is waiting for Garda vetting. For example, South Dublin County Council has more than 10,000 applicants on the list waiting for social housing. That council's process is that it seeks some sort of Garda vetting, or some sort of okay from a superintendent, that the person moving in has not got a record. Drug charges or violence are usually the two things they look for in that regard. I ask for some sort of cross-departmental co-operation to see if there is any assistance we can give the superintendent in this.
I will give one brief example. A mother of seven children has been waiting since August for this vetting to come back. She is stuck in her family home. Although she is lucky enough to have a family home to stay in, she is stuck there with her mother. She and her children thought they would have moved in by Christmas, and there was great excitement and so on, but Christmas has come and gone, it is six months later and they still have not moved in.
Is there a more centralised way this can be done? The Minister of State said the Garda does not have a role in it but superintendents have a role, when a local authority asks. Is there a more centralised way to get this done? I appreciate it is not necessarily the Minister of State's brief.
I appreciate where the Deputy is coming from. I often hear from the local authority in the area where I live that somebody is being vetted, but it is not Garda vetting as such. Local authorities are using that as a generic term rather than the technical term under the legislation, when what they have done is contact the local superintendent for a particular request relating to a person who has applied for social housing. As I said, I will raise the matter with the Commissioner to see whether there is a way to streamline the process more for requests from local authorities to An Garda Síochána in respect of particular persons.
