Sir, – Does frequency of Garda vetting lead to greater safety for younger and more vulnerable people? If so, the Irish population must be the safest in the world.
A teacher will be vetted for their role as a teacher and a link is provided as evidence. If they move schools that link can be shared with the new school.
However, if they train a young football team, the link will not suffice, they must be vetted again. If they train a badminton team in the winter, they are vetted yet again. Any other voluntary work, whether social or sporting, will require additional vetting for each activity. It is possible for someone to undergo vetting multiple times in the course of a year.
On the face of it, constant vetting substitutes quantity for quality and depth of vetting, and is a considerable waste of resources. Surely a link can be supplied to one person which is valid across all professional and voluntary activities for a given number of years?
This might free up staff to do more cross-checking of applications.
The old adage said “Constant weighing does not fatten the pig”. Perhaps the National Vetting Bureau can explain why the adage does not apply in this case. – Yours, etc,
EITHNE MURRAY,
Ballinabranna,
Co Carlow.