Rapist's work with homeless prompts plea over garda vetting
Garda vetting services must be extended to all groups working with vulnerable people with the revelation a convicted rapist was working with a homeless organisation, it was warned today.
Green Party spokesman on justice, Ciaran Cuffe, said he was extremely concerned by the fact a large number of organisations working with children and vulnerable adults still cannot get garda clearance checks on workers.
“I was shocked to learn that an individual with a considerable criminal record, who was yesterday jailed for 16 years for multiple rape and false imprisonment, had held a paid position with a homeless charity in Dublin up until February of this year,” he said.
“It is entirely unacceptable that a charity organisation providing an invaluable service to the homeless cannot access basic background checks on the individuals it employs. This places these organisations in an extremely compromising position.”
The Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) called on Justice Minister Michael McDowell to prioritise and adequately support the preventative measures he has outlined over the last number of years.
Fiona Neary, RCNI executive director said it was unacceptable that garda vetting was being given such a low priority.
“Sexual violence, its prevention and the protection of the community must to be taken seriously. This demands that government pays attention to strategies being developed and perhaps even more importantly adequately resources the recommendations,” she said.
In 2004, a working group on Garda vetting produced a strategy document providing for the expansion of the criminal record vetting service to all organisations which recruit people who have substantial, unsupervised access to children and vulnerable adults.
“Almost two years later too many organisations are still waiting for access to vetting services,” Mr Cuffe said.
Ms Neary was also critical of the pace of the roll-out of the 2004 strategy.
“Only this January we learnt that the Gardai were discontinuing vetting those from the UK seeking employment in Ireland with children and vulnerable adults,” she said.
