THE GOVERNMENT is to draft legislation urgently that will let the State collect and share information about people who pose a sexual risk to children, but who have not been prosecuted.
The move follows a unanimous recommendation from the all-party Oireachtas Committee on Child Protection, chaired by former Fianna Fáil minister Mary O'Rourke.
Up to now, the Garda Síochána's vetting unit has access to criminal records before deciding on whether someone is fit to work with children.
However, gardaí, health and social workers and members of the public face the risk of legal action if they pass on well-founded but unproven suspicions that individuals could pose a threat. For over five years, the Government has said that such so-called "soft" information could only be shared among State agencies if the Constitution was changed first.
In June, however, Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews said Attorney General Paul Gallagher had decided that it could be done by legislation, without changing the Constitution.
Despite Mr Gallagher's view, the Government had not started the preparation of legislation until the Oireachtas committee's deliberations were known: "This would have been presumptuous," a spokesman for Mr Andrews said last night.
However, work on the legislation is to begin quickly.
Ms O'Rourke said the recommendation, if accepted and implemented promptly, would greatly strengthen child protection within the State.
Under it, a statutory scheme to vet "all persons involved in working in any capacity with children" would be created, while "all records of criminal prosecutions, criminal convictions and 'soft' information may be collated, exchanged and deployed by An Garda Síochána or other statutory agencies" to ensure the highest protection for children.
Emphasising that the legislation should properly protect the constitutional rights of any persons facing allegations, the Oireachtas committee said the legislation should be put in place by Christmas.
Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter expressed confidence that legislation could be drafted that would protect innocent adults from unfounded allegations. "In Ireland we often think that we have to invent the wheel. This wheel has already been invented and is operating successfully in other countries," he told The Irish Times.
Both Mr Shatter and Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay said the full children's rights referendum promised in 2007 by then taoiseach Bertie Ahern should still go ahead.
The recommendation that vetting should be put on a statutory basis is welcome "as far as it goes and a useful, if small, part of the committee's job", said Mr Finlay.
"Where loopholes can be plugged through legislation, we welcome this as an interim response," said Mr Finlay, who said a children's rights amendment would be "a statement by the Irish people about the society in which we want to live".