Garda Vetting

Garda Vetting Step by Step Guide

CLG Chluain Tarbh/Clontarf GAA is committed to the protection of welfare of all our members. As part of this commitment, the Club requires all mentors and other members to comply with the legal requirement to have Garda Vetting before carrying out any activities involving children.

Obtaining Vetting is a legal requirement pursuant to the National Vetting Bureau (Children & Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 – 2016. The Club has a statutory obligation to ensure that all persons who undertake ‘relevant work’ with children are vetted.

The term ‘relevant work’ in the GAA includes any role of responsibility such as coaching, managing or training underage teams or indeed adult teams that contain any player under 18 years of age. It also applies to organising underage activities or refereeing underage games.

Garda Vetting must be obtained before taking up any of the above roles. It is a criminal offence for a person acting on behalf of the GAA, or for a GAA Club to permit any person to commence working with children, without obtaining appropriate Garda vetting in respect of the role for which they have been recruited.

There are 3 steps involved to obtain Garda Vetting:-

Step 1 Initial application for vetting to the Club

Step 2: GAA Vetting Application Form

Step 3: Online application to the National Vetting Bureau

You cannot commence steps 2 and 3 until you have completed step 1. As soon as the Club’s Child Protection Officer has verified your ID documents, you will be notified by email how to complete step 2

Step 1 – Initial application for vetting to the Club

You must download and complete a GAA E-Vetting ID Form. This form compels you to provide proof of your identity to the Club Children’s Officer, who must verify that they have received the ID verification as required.

If you are aged between 16 and 18 years of age you must also complete a Parental Consent Form.

On completion of the above form you must gather at least two acceptable forms of identification. A copy of your passport/drivers licence and a utility bill (not less than 6 months old) will be sufficient.

The primary purpose of this form is for you to provide your name, address, club, role for which you applied, and to present your ID (e.g. copy of your passport plus a utility bill showing your current address) plus a valid email address for future reference.

The full list of documents which are accepted for verification can be found on the Identification form. You will see that each item has a score marked beside it, you must provide Identification up to a minimum score of 100.

The GAA E-Vetting ID Form (and accompanying proof of ID) must be delivered to the Club in person. Please note that once your application has been vetted, the ID documentation will be destroyed or passed back to you.

Completion of a Child Protection Course

It is a mandatory requirement for all Mentors to complete a Child Protection Course (CPC1).
If your CPC 1 course was completed more than 3 years ago you MUST complete a refresher online. A person can complete the safeguarding refresher in their own time once they have attended a safeguarding face to face workshop from 2016 onwards. The link to the refresher is https://learning.gaa.ie/safeguardingrefresher

Further questions

If you have any questions about Garda Vetting please contact Jude Hanratty at 087 2330782 or email vetting@clontarfgaa.com.

Useful Links

Vetting in the GAA http://www.gaa.ie/the-gaa/child-welfare-and-protection/vetting

FAQ from Garda https://vetting.garda.ie/Help/FAQ