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Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan, today welcomed the announcement by Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald that the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 is being commenced from 29 April 2016.
According to Minister O’Sullivan “Garda vetting is an important element of the state’s child protection architecture and helps ensure that those who are known to be a risk to children or vulnerable persons are not employed or engaged by schools or other relevant organisations to work with children or vulnerable persons. I very much welcome that the arrangements for Garda vetting are now being given a statutory basis.”
The Minister announced that her Department has today published Circular 0031/2016 Commencement of Statutory Requirements for Garda Vetting which outlines the statutory requirements that will apply to school authorities from 29 April 2016 along with the practical arrangements that will be in place to support statutory vetting. An FAQ document to assist schools with queries in relation to the circular has also been published.
The Minister stated that “The immediate priority for my Department arising from of the commencement of the vetting legislation is to ensure that the necessary legislative and operational arrangements are in place so that the vetting arrangements for the school system operate smoothly and in accordance with the legislation. In that regard, I am also pleased to announce that I have today signed a commencement order in respect of those provisions of the Teaching Council Amendment Act 2015 which give statutory underpinning to the role of the Teaching Council in the statutory vetting arrangements for registered teachers.”
The Minister commented that “The commencement of the Vetting Act will also facilitate the statutory vetting of registered teachers who have not been vetted to date. The Teaching Council Amendment Act 2015 is intended to work in tandem with the Vetting Act and provides that renewal of a teacher’s registration will be linked to compliance with retrospective and re-vetting requirements. The 2015 Act also ensures that there will be a robust statutory basis for the Teaching Council to consider, in the case of any teacher who is the subject of an adverse vetting disclosure whether or not the teacher’s registration should be renewed.”
The Minister added “Preparatory work in relation to initiating the statutory vetting of those registered who have never been vetted to date is at an advanced stage. It is intended that the relevant provisions of the Teaching Council Amendment Act 2015 which empower the Council to undertake such vetting in the context of renewal of registration will be commenced from September 2016. A key priority of the Teaching Council following the commencement of these statutory vetting arrangements will be to ensure that the vetting of this cohort of circa 34,000 registered teachers is completed as quickly as possible.”
The Minister also indicated that planning for the commencement of the Fitness to Teach provisions (Part 5) of the legislation is at an advanced stage and it is expected that Fitness to Teach will be commenced by 29th June.
Ends.