IMPORTANT INFORMATION BELOW RELATING TO GARDA VETTING FOR ALL ELC/SAC SERVICES

 

 

 

Garda Vetting is a legal requirement for all people working with children and vulnerable adults, under the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012-2016 including staff of Early Learning and Care and School Age Services. 

Garda vetting for each staff member must be renewed every three years. It is a breach of regulation for staff to continue working with children where their vetting has expired.

There is a new Garda Vetting process in place for ELC/SAC services since 1^st February 2025. The following now applies:

• TUSLA manage Garda Vetting services for registered providers, including childminders, as well as Chairpersons of Boards of Management (where they are the registered provider) and board members who have access to children.
• Early Childhood Ireland (ECI) manage Garda Vetting services for all employees in ELC and SAC services.

In order to apply for vetting through TUSLA you must create a new account on the Tusla Garda Vetting Portal. This is a separate portal account to that used for your TUSLA Renewal of Registration and can be accessed here: Tusla Portal

You can apply for Garda Vetting through TUSLA the following persons only:

• Registered Providers,

·                  Heads of Boards of management for childcare services where the person is the Registered Provider,

ECI Vetting

If you have used Barnardos to access vetting in the past, will need to apply for a GNVB number in order to access vetting for employees through ECI.  This needs to be done before making an application for vetting through ECI and can take up to 6 to 10 weeks. This needs to be taken into account when reviewing staff vetting expiry dates.

In addition, if an applicant has lived outside of the Republic of Ireland/Northern Ireland in an EU country or the UK, their Garda Vetting application will now take longer:

This also needs to be taken into account when reviewing staff vetting expiry dates.

The TUSLA Registration Renewal Process requires submission of in-date Garda Vetting for the Registered Provider and the Person in Charge (if different). Services should review their Garda Vetting date as soon as possible to ascertain if up-dated vetting is required prior to Registration Renewal. Current timelines for vetting should be considered and updated vetting should be sourced as soon as possible.

REMEMBER – You must make a registration renewal application AT LEAST 2 MONTHS before the expiry of your current registration date. If your registration renewal date is 01/01/2026, you are required to submit your registration renewal application by the 31st of October 2025 and will require up to date Garda Vetting to do so. 

Services can complete Registration Renewal any time up to 6 months prior to expiry date. Once Garda Vetting is up to date at the time of submission of Registration Renewal application it will be accepted. We encourage you to make the application to renew registration as soon as possible.

For further information:

https://www.tusla.ie/early-years-inspectorate/garda-vetting-applications/

https://www.earlychildhoodireland.ie/garda-vetting/