Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 82:

In page 11, after line 29, to insert the following:“Amendment of section 13 of Act of 2012

20.Section 13 of the Act of 2012 is amended—

(a) by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (2):

“(2) A relevant organisation may submit an application for vetting disclosure under this section on its own behalf or on behalf of another relevant organisation that the organisation represents for the purposes of the vetting procedures under this Act and, where a relevant organisation submits an application on behalf of another relevant organisation, it shall⁠—

(a) inform the Bureau of that fact and provide the Bureau with the particulars referred to in section 8(5), and

(b) provide or make available, in written or electronic form, a copy of the vetting disclosure received from the Bureau to the relevant organisation that it represents or on whose behalf the application for vetting was made.”,

(b) in subsection (5), by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (l):

“(l) subject to subsection (6A), in a case where he or she has a criminal record, particulars of such record;”,

and

(c) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (6):

“(6A) A person shall not be obliged to provide details of any convictions to which section 14A applies.”.”.

The purpose of this amendment is again to provide a number of clarifications so that the provisions of the Act will be correctly interpreted.

Subsection (a) amends the existing subsection (2). It makes it explicit that where an organisation submits an application on behalf of an organisation it represents for the purpose of vetting, it must pass on the vetting disclosure to the relevant organisation. The wording "provide or make available" is used here to reflect the fact that the manner in which the disclosure is passed on will vary. It may be provided by post, by fax, by e-mail or by any means which allows the end user to produce a written copy. In the case of vetting of teachers, for example, the Teaching Council will use the same vetting disclosures to consider the eligibility of teachers to be registered as teachers, and will make them available in a secure manner to school employers, with the consent of the teacher and using a teacher-controlled personal identification number, PIN.

Subsections (b) and (c) provide that persons applying for vetting are not required to disclose any of the old minor convictions which are not included in a vetting disclosure under the provisions of section 14A. Again, it is clarifying some of the discussions we had earlier.

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