I'll try and answer some of Peter's questions as best I can.
Paragraphs 1-3:
*The
Garda Vetting Unit check for "
details of all convictions and/or prosecutions, successful or not, pending or completed, in the State or elsewhere as the case may be are disclosed to the authorised liaison person in the registered organisation."*They only disclose this information to the specified liaison person, not the organization overall.
*If a disclosure is made, you have the right to find out exactly what it contains. Indeed, you have the right to any personal information that anyone has about you.
*the AUC isn't an independent body, it's part of UCD which certainly does have a
data protection policy.
*These criteria will be possibly unique to the UCD/ the AUC - in which case it does make sense for the to publish them - fair point. It's possible that UCD have a standard set of garda vetting policies that are listed somewhere else.
Paragraph 4:
*The're the AUC, not the mafia. They're not into blackmail or marginalising people for the hell of it.
Aside from that, it's illegal to keep personal information for purposes other than those specified.
Paragraph 5:
*This is certainly a big potential problem with the Garda vetting procedure. However, it's a problem that would need to be addressed at a national and international level. Perhaps the college could encourage movement on this issue but it shouldn't be criticized for something that's not in its power and we shouldn't refuse to follow the procedure even if it
might not work in all cases.
Paragraph 6:
* I'm sure that NiallF will tell you that it means a lot for him to organise, but he seems to be pretty on the ball. That is why he's asked us all to do this now, so that they'll be ready in time for September.
The rest:
As Dave and Diarmuid said, it's not an option.
Peter, I understand that you're not a person who likes to blindly follow into things, someone who likes to see the point of doing something and see that it's done right- it's not a perfect system and you're skeptical of it because of that. UCD are implementing it as best they can.
I disagree about a false sense of security. Having vetting isn't a carte blanche and nobody thinks it is. People are still required to act in a respectful manner to everyone and follow ISC child-protection policy at all times.
UCD has a few different forms to be filled out for this reason and whilst no one of them does everything, between them all they're covering as many bases as they can.
Hopefully the Gardai will be able to implement a perfect system in the future, but for now this is what we can do. It's better to have something that works in the vast majority of cases than to have nothing at all.
(now, to remember to print out those forms...)
