Despite the murders of English schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells during the summer, the Republic has not introduced any system for vetting most school employees, the INTO warned yesterday.
Thousands of teachers, caretakers, secretarial staff and teaching assistants are recruited each year without Garda clearance, the union warned. Its general secretary, Mr John Carr, said there was a serious need for a central vetting system, possibly based on the model in Northern Ireland.
He said this operated on the basis that all new employees entering schools must have Garda clearance. He said the INTO did not believe existing employees should have to go through this vetting system, however.
The vetting of teachers, caretakers and other staff working with children has received serious attention in Britain because of the events in Soham. However, the vetting of teachers there took so long many schools were forced to delay the start of the school year.
Mr Carr said that to prevent this happening here any new system would have to be introduced gradually and with the full co-operation of the management bodies, the gardaí and the Department of Education.
"At this juncture, the INTO has had some preliminary discussion with the central vetting office in Garda headquarters vis-à-vis the practicalities involved in setting up a national system of vetting school employees," said Mr Carr.