As the Deputy will appreciate, it is the Garda Commissioner who is responsible for managing An Garda Síochána including personnel matters, and I, as Minister, have no direct role in this matter.
Garda management keeps this distribution of resources under continual review in the context of crime trends and policing priorities so as to ensure that the optimum use is made of these resources.
The National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 to 2016 provide a statutory basis for the vetting of persons carrying out relevant work with children or vulnerable persons.
The Act stipulates that a relevant organisation shall not permit any person to undertake relevant work or activities on behalf of the organisation, unless the organisation receives a vetting disclosure from the National Vetting Bureau in respect of that person.
Garda vetting is conducted on behalf of registered organisations only and is not conducted for individual persons on a personal basis.
For the Deputy's information, I have set out below in tabular form, the number of Gardaí by rank attached to the national vetting bureau as of 1 June 2017, 1 June 2018 and 24 June 2019.
National Vetting Bureau
|
Sergeant
|
Superintendent
|
Total
|
31/05/2017
|
5
|
1
|
6
|
31/05/2018
|
4
|
1
|
5
|
31/05/2019
|
5
|
1
|
6
|
While a separate annual budget for the Garda National Vetting Bureau is not compiled, the table below details the total actual expenditure for the Garda National Vetting Bureau for the period 2017 to 30th June, 2019 inclusive.
Year
|
Expenditure
|
2017
|
€6,396,389
|
2018
|
€6,592,326
|
2019 (to 30 June)
|
€3,296,781
|
For more general information on Garda Facts and Figures please see the link: http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/An_Garda_Siochana_facts_and_figures