Garda Vetting of Personnel

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 October 2012

Thursday, 25 October 2012

Ceisteanna (154)

Arthur Spring

Ceist:

154. Deputy Arthur Spring asked the Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 1001 of 18 April 2012, and taking into consideration the following, the number of Irish persons who have emigrated in recent years, that the current Police Certificate of Character may be issued by an Garda Síochána only for the purposes of foreign consular and immigration requirements and for foreign business establishment and not for taking up foreign employment, that the data protection access request application form states a disclosure of personal data under the Data Protection Act 1988 and 2003 should not be construed as Garda vetting, Police certificate, Garda reference or security clearance, if there is a need for a separate Garda clearance certificate to be introduced to cater specifically for Irish citizens who have been offered employment abroad, especially in education and whose acceptance of the offer of employment is pending on the issue of a police clearance certificate from An Garda Síochána. [46906/12]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Justice and Equality

As the Deputy is aware, Garda vetting certificates for employment purposes are only provided for those seeking employment in Ireland with registered organisations where the employment involves substantial unsupervised access to children or vulnerable adults. In that regard, the Garda Central Vetting Unit currently provides vetting services to approximately 20,000 of these organisations with a further 4,000 organisations awaiting registration. The Unit is expected to deal with 350,000 applications this year. I am sure the Deputy will agree, that given the current level of demand from the child and vulnerable adult care sector, the provisions of services to this particular area must remain the priority. Unfortunately, this means it is not possible at this stage to provide general employment vetting for the purposes of employment here or abroad beyond the arrangements outlined in the Deputy's question.