The use of “soft information” in the vetting of adults working with children or vulnerable people will be carefully balanced with an individual’s legal and constitutional rights, the head of the Central Garda Vetting Unit has said.
Fears that proposed legislation on the vetting of adults would allow for “innuendos and rumours” to be used against existing or prospective employees were unfounded, Garda Supt Part Burke said today.
The draft legislation, which is due before the Government later this year, will provide a statutory basis for vetting people to identify those unsuitable for working with children or vulnerable adults.
Central to the new legislation will be the use of so-called “soft information" which relates to information available to the authorities about individuals who have not been charged with or convicted of criminal offences.
In an address to a seminar on Garda vetting, hosted by the South Dublin County Volunteer Centre, Supt Burke insisted the use of such information was crucial in assessing the suitability of some adults to work with children or vulnerable individuals.
There are many cases, he said, where gardaí fail to get to a prosecution but where “serious concerns” exist about individuals.
“This is most often the case where investigations into reports of child abuse, rape and domestic violence never get to court because of witness intimidation.”
There were also technical reasons or mistakes made by gardaí relating to the arrest or detainment of suspects, which result in the failure of authorities to prosecute.
However, Supt Burke said the use of soft information would seek to strike a balance between assessing the risk posed and “managing the natural justice and human rights of the individual”.
Up to now, the gardaí’s vetting unit is only legally allowed to disclose a person's criminal record, which details only their prosecutions and convictions. Under the current legislation, gardaí and employers could face the risk of legal action if they pass on well-founded but unproven suspicions that individuals could pose a threat.
Supt Burke said the new legislation would make it a criminal offence to deliberately provide false information on Garda vetting application forms, with a jail terms of up to five years.
In his address, Supt Burke said demand for Garda vetting services in the Republic had grown at an astounding rate in recent years, with the number organisations using the service rising from just 100 in 2006 to nearly 19,000 this year.
The unit was now receiving on average of 7,000 applications a week, he said, with non-priority applications taking somewhere between 12 and 14 weeks to process.
He said there had been a "seismic change" in the culture and demand for vetting in the Republic since the killing of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman by school caretaker Ian Huntley in Soham in England in 2002.
The Garda Vetting Unit provides volunteer vetting services for the larger community and voluntary organisations across the country. But Supt Burke said the unit “simply did not have the resources at the moment” to provide a vetting services to the smaller voluntary organisations.
The Volunteer Centres Ireland (VCI) and its member volunteer centres, however, are acting as a liaison between smaller organisations and the unit.
