As the Deputy will be aware, the primary purpose of the employment vetting carried out by the National Vetting Bureau is to seek to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults. It is carried out by An Garda Síochána in accordance with the provisions of the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012-2016. I am sure the Deputy will appreciate the importance of this task and the need for it to be carried out thoroughly and correctly.
The Deputy will be further aware that the legislation provides for vetting to be conducted only on behalf of relevant organisations that are registered with the National Vetting Bureau and is not conducted for individual persons on a personal basis.
A Garda Vetting Review Group was established in April 2021 and meets monthly to discuss proposals regarding potential amendments to vetting legislation. It includes members of An Garda Síochána and officials from my Department, Tusla and other relevant parties.
The primary focus of the Group is to deliberate on and formulate recommendations to strengthen the vetting legislation in an effective manner. Issues to be considered by the group include any changes which may be possible around the matter of re-vetting. The Group is due to report by the end of this year.
The vetting applications process is an operational matter for An Garda Síochána and neither I, as Minister, nor my Department, have any role in the processing of individual vetting applications.
I am informed that the GNVB continues to focus on ensuring that minimum disruption is caused to the vetting process for the 26,600 relevant organisations working with children and vulnerable persons across Ireland, despite the huge demands placed on the services of the GNVB.
The GNVB processes hundreds of thousands of vetting requests every year, with a projected number in 2022 of over half a million vetting requests as the economy and voluntary services continue to re-open. I am advised that 140,779 vetting requests were received in Q1 2022, an increase of 21% compared to pre-Covid Q1 2020, and an increase of 58% over Q1 2021 when vetting requests were down due to the pandemic.
This has resulted in an unusually high number of vetting applications to be in the system at the same time and with other pressing demands has extended the standard turnaround time from 5 working days to approximately 9 working days for most applications, which I am sure the Deputy will agree remains a reasonable timeframe for such applications to be processed.
The GNVB has previously communicated with all of the relevant organisations to advise them of the current turnaround times and to assure them that the GNVB continues to process their vetting applications as expeditiously as possible.
