Garda vetting :mad:

galah

hi all,

more a rant than anything, and couldn't find a more appropriate forum...

Hubby was made redundant a while ago, has been studying social care, and after 1 month on the dole had an interview with a social institution. So far, so great. He was now told at the interview that the garda vetting is going to take 4 to 6 weeks (!), so they cannot tell him whether he has a job until then.

I understand that vetting is required, however:

This is the THIRD bloody vetting form he applied for in the past 12 months. He needed one for the organisation he is volunteering for, he needed one for the college so he could do his work placement (which took almost 5 month to come through, making it REALLY difficult to complete 60 hours of voluntary work in 2 months while working fulltime), and now he had to apply for yet another one!

Am I the only one here who thinks that this system is stupidly inefficient?

Apart from the fact that once he got the forms, he probably won't have to get them again for a long time - which makes it potentially unsafe (not saying my hubby is a danger to society , but technically, he could go off and molest someone without the company ever knowing about it), I think it would be much better to have ONE personal form that you could apply for, maybe even pay for, and that you have to renew every year - rather than applying for a form for EACH company you want to work for/volunteer for. Plus he's now on the dole for an unecessary 6 weeks - 6 weeks during which he could ACTUALLY be working already (assuming he got the job).

If he doesn't get this job, he'll apply for another one, with another care company, and will have to go through the same bloody thing AGAIN. Drawing more dole while waiting around.

This really, really annoys me - but is there anything one can do about it? Surely we are not the only ones affected/annoyed by this, and I bet that the vetting unit could probably do with a reduction in unnecessary/pointless workload as well?!

/rant over

Evonatron

I never heard of anyone getting more then one vetting a year depending on the work/college.

My sister is garda vetted as she works with children and only does it once a year even though she has been in college and working in a creche as well.

Can the gardia not supply you with one statement showing that you were vetting and use that for everything then?

sambuka41

galah wrote: »

He was now told at the interview that the garda vetting is going to take 4 to 6 weeks (!),

Am I the only one here who thinks that this system is stupidly inefficient?

Apart from the fact that once he got the forms, he probably won't have to get them again for a long time - which makes it potentially unsafe (not saying my hubby is a danger to society , but technically, he could go off and molest someone without the company ever knowing about it)

So a few things to comment on, 4-6 weeks is incredibly fast for Garda Vetting, the quickest Ive had come back for my staff is 8 weeks.

The system is SOOOOOO flawed and inefficient its unbelievable!! They will only come back with convictions nothing else, so if you were a suspect in a murder case that wont show up. And its true what you say its not like once you have a garda clearance that your a good person, all it means is that you've never been convicted of anything.

Every company will look for their own Garda Clearance, mine came through in January but if i change jobs then I will need a new one cause I could have done anything between Jan and now, BUT same is true for the current job, I still could have done anything between Jan and now. They advise that the clearance is expired after 4 years, so if your with a company that long you'll need to apply again.

It all about money,the vetting place gets paid for each clearance.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

mw3guc

I think you make an excellent point about sitting on the dole longer as a result of waiting for the Garda Clearance OP - this really needs to be addressed. My neighbour's son almost lost a job in NI due to the long wait for his - over 2.5 months :eek: The equivalent check in NI came through in less than 3 weeks.
That meant that he was paid unnecessary dole here for those months and risked having to stay on it a lot longer if the NI organisation had gotten fed up waiting and appointed the second person on the panel instead. I don't know if they could have done this, but my feeling is that they would have been within their rights as the job needed to be filled urgently.

daheff

why not approach your local TD and explain the situation? Get him /her to put pressure on the vetting area (explain about the extra dole costs to the state/loss of taxes etc) to get the vetting done ASAP

QuiteInterestin

sambuka41 wrote: »

The system is SOOOOOO flawed and inefficient its unbelievable!! They will only come back with convictions nothing else, so if you were a suspect in a murder case that wont show up.

No offence, but whatever happened until innocent until proven guilty? If you were never found guilty why should there be a permanant mark on your record just because you were an innocent suspect?

I agree, the system is wrong though. They actually did a feature on the RTE news on this topic a few weeks back. It pointed out how many people are put off doing voluntary work because of the long waits involved in getting garda clearance, and how different organisations require different types of clearance depending on age groups/activities involved and so alot of the work probably ends up being duplicated.

sambuka41

QuiteInterestin wrote: »

No offence, but whatever happened until innocent until proven guilty? If you were never found guilty why should there be a permanant mark on your record just because you were an innocent suspect?

You are right, don't get me wrong, im not saying that any inquires should show up. Just that its not like if you have a Garda Clearance that is certain that person is safe, they could have been interviewed or be the main suspect but there isn't the evidence to prosecute. As a system its not great.

As an employer I can say that its very difficult to get staff when they can't work until the clearance comes in, most have found another job by the time you call them back. Wastes a lot of time. :mad:

2qk4u

The worst part of this is that the Garda vetting does not work in the first place. So it means everyone is waiting for the vetting to not get done.

Jim2007

galah wrote: »

This really, really annoys me - but is there anything one can do about it? Surely we are not the only ones affected/annoyed by this, and I bet that the vetting unit could probably do with a reduction in unnecessary/pointless workload as well?!

I've never experienced the Irish system, but I have lots of experience of the Swiss system.

Don't laugh, but under Swiss law everyone who works for a bank must have a clean criminal record, right down to the parking tickets! You have to apply for a new certificate for each job application and once employed you have to have it renewed every few years. Each application costs about €25 and takes about 2.5 months to come through...

As I work freelance I usually need a couple of these certs each year and I'm well known at the police station as a result - in fact the officer usually has taken out the forms by the time I've made my way from the street into the front desk! But that does not matter, they still go over the whole thing each time. So it is not just Ireland...

Jim.

busycar

Hi,I was searching a thread on here in relation to seeking garda vetting fron Switzerland.I worked over there for a few months and I now need to seek vetting from there.Can you give me any idea how to about this please?

DublinWriter

QuiteInterestin wrote: »

No offence, but whatever happened until innocent until proven guilty? If you were never found guilty why should there be a permanant mark on your record just because you were an innocent suspect?

Two words...Ian Huntley.

Moonbeam

I had to apply multiple times in the same week before for different organisations. It can take 6 months or even longer at times. You have to be vetted by every organisation separately. I would rather be vetted annually for everywhere.

DublinWriter

Moonbeam wrote: »

I would rather be vetted annually for everywhere.

The sensible solution is to have a licensing scheme to allow people work with the young\vulnerable and prevent the current crazy situation whereby people are vetted numerous times per year.

However, this suggestion never goes down well with the Civil Rights bunch.

pharmaton

Don't know if it's of any help but I worked in social care for a few years and used to have to get garda vetting on a regular basis but I remember one occasion where I was called in to do two weeks cover for someone on holidays, even though I had been vetted that year I was required to get a new one for immediate use and for short period only so those employers sent me to the local court clerk to sign a declaration (and swear on the bible!) which was good enough for them at the time. Your husband might be able to do something similar if it's for immediate use until he gets clearance from the gardaí.