THE appointment of Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) for schools all over Limerick is being delayed by hold ups in the Garda vetting system.
Limerick Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins, who is the party spokesman for Jobs and Enterprise, has warned that a growing backlog of Garda vetting applications will have a detrimental impact on schools over the coming months.
And he says that the current vetting procedures for Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) needs to be overhauled to prevent duplication of work.
“Specifically, a centralised database should be introduced to prevent the need for SNAs to go through the same vetting procedure on multiple occasions over a short period of time whenever they move schools.
“Since the introduction of new legislation in 2015, there has been an unprecedented number of applications made through the Garda vetting system.
“In the space of one year alone an additional 40,000 teachers have had to apply for Garda vetting,” Deputy Collins explained.
“There are hundreds of SNA and teacher vetting applications still pending leaving a number of children with disabilities having to stay at home because their SNA has been unable to take up their position.
“This is simply unacceptable and highlights the need to tackle problems associated with vetting. It’s unfair that children with disabilities are losing out on valuable time in school because of delays in processing vetting applications.
He has called for reform of the system as there is no centralised record of SNAs that have been Garda vetted.
“A database already exists for teachers that have been vetted, so there is no excuse for not having a similar database for SNAs adding that it needs to be a top priority for the Government,” he said.
