Priest vetting restricted to those working with children

By Colin Coyle
Sunday Times
December 20, 2015

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/ireland/article1647463.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2015_12_19

PRIESTS will no longer have to undergo garda vetting unless they work with children or vulnerable people, following lobbying by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Under legislation introduced in 2012, anyone engaged in “work or activity as a minister or priest, or any other person engaged in the advancement of religious beliefs” had to be vetted by gardai.

In October, Teresa Devlin, chief executive of the board, met officials from the Department of Justice and requested a change to the provisions so that clergy would require garda checking only when “engaged in activities which consist mainly of working with children”.