An Garda Síochána
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-27
============================================================

Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

I thank Senator Crowe for raising this important matter. As he knows and as has stated, the primary purpose of the Garda vetting system is and always must be the protection of children and vulnerable adults. It is essential that parents, families, sporting organisations and charities can have confidence that appropriate safeguards are in place for those who undertake these positions in trust, whether it is coaching a children's sports team, working in a care home or working with people with disabilities.
At the same time, I recognise from what the Senator and other representatives have said that concerns have been raised by volunteers, particularly sporting bodies and community organisations, regarding aspects of the current vetting process. Concerns have included the need for repeated vetting applications where an individual volunteer is across multiple organisations or roles. As the Senator indicated, his concern is that if somebody is given vetting to coach the local hurling team, why would they need vetting to coach the local soccer team at the same time? I recognise that we need to make the system more efficient for those sporting organisations, youth services, childcare providers and community groups that rely heavily on volunteers.
I have listened to the Senator's concerns and those of other representatives, as has the Government. I am conscious that volunteers are the backbone of communities across the country. Safeguarding and their participation in it are extremely important. For that reason, following the work of the Garda vetting review group, steps are being progressed to modernise and streamline the current system, while fully maintaining the robust safeguarding standards that are essential. In practice, and subject to the general requirement that vetting be renewed every three years, it is envisaged that where a person has already been vetted for work within a particular risk category, that individual would not need to undergo a completely new vetting process if moving to another role within the same category.
This approach strikes the correct balance. It maintains a strong protection, while also reducing duplication and unnecessary administrative burdens for volunteers and organisations. I note that similar practices operate successfully in other areas. An example is with registered teachers, who are vetted through the Teaching Council. Teachers can move between schools without undergoing full revetting unless the scheduled renewal requirements are needed. There is merit in examining how a comparable model to that used by the council could be applied more broadly.
The Government also recognises the importance of an efficient and responsive system, and that it remains so. In fairness to the Garda National Vetting Bureau, it processes a huge number of applications for vetting each year. In one recent year, it processed in the region of 630,000 applications. Most are dealt with and completed within the short period of seven to nine working days.
The changes being developed will require legislative amendments and updating technical systems. My Department is engaging closely with An Garda Síochána to ensure these reforms deliver a process that is efficient and secure, while ensuring the high standards of safeguarding that the public expects. I am pleased to communicate to Senator Crowe that issues are being developed within my Department to respond to the important matter that he has highlighted.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:00+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-27