Groups working with children have given a reserved welcome to the announcement that all people who want to work with children or vulnerable adults will have to undergo a Garda check. Kitty Holland reports.
Until now only potential health board employees have faced such a check.
The Minister of State for Children, Mr Brian Lenihan, yesterday confirmed a major extension of the role of the Central Garda Vetting Unit with the news that the number of staff at the unit would be more than doubled, from 13 to 30.
The move should be seen as "a significant boost to our national child protection arrangements", he said.
Within months, according to Mr Lenihan, anyone hoping to be a teacher, to work in a school, a crêche or a children's sports facility or in the voluntary sector with children will first have to obtain Garda clearance.
While the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) and the National Bishops' Conference gave an unequivocal welcome to the announcement, the Irish Youth Foundation expressed concern about possible delays in its implementation.
Mr Gearóid Ó Maoilmhichíl, communications and child protection co-ordinator with the IYF, said that, while the foundation welcomed the announcement in principle, "we are also worried about the lack of guarantees on a time-frame for all this".
Mr Lenihan was unable to give a definite schedule for when the expanded unit would be fully operational and ready to process vetting requests from people applying to one of the extended range of organisations. It would be "a matter of months", he said.
Additional staff had to be trained, and it was now an operational matter for the Garda Commissioner, Mr Noel Conroy.
Mr Ó Maoilmhichíl said that, given the amount of legislative change Mr Lenihan had said would be needed to give full force to the expanded unit, the Minister's prediction of a matter of months" was very optimistic.
Amendments would be required to the Protection of Persons Reporting Child Abuse Act and the Sex Offenders Act, which Mr Lenihan had said would take some time.
The National Child Protection Office of the Irish Bishops' Conference welcomed the announcement. A spokesman said the office had previously written to both the Departments of Health and Justice looking for the extension of the vetting procedures to apply to all personnel working with children.
Mr Paul Gilligan, chief executive of the ISPCC, welcomed yesterday's announcement as "an essential child protection development".
He will sit on the implementation group which is to give practical effect to the recommendations of the Garda Vetting Unit working group which reported to Mr Lenihan in March. Among its 19 recommendations was that the service should provide not only "hard" information such as convictions, but "soft" information such as allegations of criminal activity.