Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When Deputy Donnelly was speaking I was trying to count up how many addresses I have had in my adult life. There are at least eight I can remember. I cannot remember the exact address of some of those. The nature of being a student or young person is that you move and 40 years later you do not remember where. The onus on us is to remember every single address, however. That is not the key issue because obviously it is on me to figure out where I lived. There are, however, people who lived in other jurisdictions and are now living and working in this State who have to go back to those jurisdictions or contact the relevant authorities in them to get a statement. It is overly bureaucratic.

Nobody is suggesting we should undermine in any way the protections of the vetting Act. Most of us are around long enough to remember when there was no Garda vetting bureau. The intention of the vast majority of people is to ensure that vetting is done well and quickly without undermining the protections that are provided in order that the bureau can do its work properly. The advantage of computerisation is that we should be able to do this much quicker. There should never be a delay once full access is granted. A register of consents we propose just makes life easier for people.

Only last week, I dealt with two young people who were delighted they had got a job in a major hospital in this city. They cannot take up the job even though both of them have vetting for different football clubs in the city. They are waiting again for vetting because they will be dealing with children or vulnerable people given the medical skills they have. That is going to be part of their life. If they move club or hospitals, they will have to get vetting each time. They cannot take up their new positions, even though they were told they were starting at the start of September. They now have to wait because CORU or some other body is applying for the vetting on behalf of whatever organisation in the hospital they will work for. While that is right, it should not delay somebody who has skills and has been in the system from taking up a job. They have been working but obviously because they are working as students, they are working under supervision in a different hospital where they may have had vetting already.

Many people turn to TDs and ask us whether we can help and we say “No” because the application has to work its way through the system. We try to help and try to encourage the system. In this case, we are trying to ensure that where people already have vetting, it can translate to other jobs so people have vetting for three years. If anything happens in those three years, the onus is obviously on the person who has given consent to ensure the bureau has full knowledge of it. The bureau itself will also ensure it has full knowledge of any court cases or anything untoward that is happening because that is part of its job. The problem with this, especially in the season we are in, is that a lot of people I know have been discouraged from volunteering for summer camps and so on, even though it is not that onerous.

People feel that it is only for three weeks and they could not be bothered. That should never be the case. In fairness the GAA clubs I have been with in my local area all have officers in charge who deal with the vetting and so on. They try to encourage parents who can play a role. It is a supervisory role but we still have to have the vetting process. The vetting process should never be a form of discouragement but at the moment, it is for a lot of people. They could not be bothered. They do not see why they need to do it or to go through this, that and the other. We should be making it easier for people to volunteer in society and to play as active a role as possible, while we are protecting those who are vulnerable and protecting children. That is the key in all of this. It does not matter if somebody gets the hump or loses a few weeks' wages. I am sorry but children's protection comes first. That puts an onus on us to make sure the system is working properly and is as effective as humanly possible. If we can take steps such as those suggested in this Bill to speed it up and make it more efficient, that is what we should be doing. Ní chóir go mbeadh aon mhaorlathas ann. The bureaucracy should not be there. We should not be slowed down by it.

Many people, myself included, do not understand the full nature of the vetting process. I have never had to apply for vetting. I am not a coach on a football team or involved in a scouting organisation. All my kids went through it but I was one of the lucky ones who could say I was stuck in here and did not have to volunteer at the weekends. At some stage I will be volunteering and, like most parents, whether it is helping the school out or the organisations, I will be going down that road in the future. I would hope it will be as effective as I have seen it, but more efficient. That is the key part of this.

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