Section 22 of the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 to 2016 - the new Irish vetting legislation, known until now as Garda vetting – sets out the manner of the appointment of the person to the role of Chief Bureau Officer of the National Vetting Bureau.
Section 22 also looks at the relationship of the Chief Bureau Officer to the senior ranking police officer of the Garda Siochana, and explores the reporting relationship set out by statute.
STATUTORY ROLE
Appointment of Chief Bureau Officer and delegation of functions of Chief Bureau Officer.
The Chief Bureau Officer is a statutorily created role, appointed by the Garda Commissioner (the most senior ranking Irish police officer).
DIRECT REPORT
The Chief Bureau Officer, as such, is a direct report to the Garda Commissioner. As part of that reporting structure, the Chief Bureau Officer is required to update the Garda Commissioner directly as to the (1) performance of the National Vetting Bureau’s functions and the (2) management of the National Vetting Bureau’s functions.
DELEGABLE & NON-DELEGABLE FUNCTIONS
The requirement that the Chief Bureau Officer report directly to Garda Commissioner is the one function that cannot be delegated down to a member of their staff.
The frequency of that reporting is kept suitably vague and non-descript, other than it’s required to be done ‘periodically’.
Other than this direct report, the Chief Bureau Officer is statutorily able to delegate their functions to specific staff members of the National Vetting Bureau, with the legislation allowing for certain conditions to be met if the Chief Bureau Officer sees fit.
Essentially those conditions:
- may be either general or specific in nature (e.g. to deal with / look at a specific case)
- include specific restrictions / conditions, and
- allow the Chief Bureau Officer to revoke the delegation at any time
And, as you would expect, the act of delegating one of the Chief Bureau Officer’s functions down to a staff member, doesn’t prevent the Chief Bureau Officer from still getting involved in the particular function delegated.
THE POWER OF THE DELEGATED FUNCTIONS
The impact of the delegation is significant: it essentially means that where a function has been delegated, the staff member carries the full authority of the Chief Bureau Officer in carrying out the particular function delegated.
SUMMARY
Section 22 is one of the shorter provisions of the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 to 2016 - the new Irish vetting legislation, known until now as Garda vetting.
It deals with the reporting relationship between the head of the National Vetting Bureau (the role is called the Chief Bureau Officer) and the head of the Irish policing authority (the Garda Commissioner, the senior officer of the Garda Siochana).
Section 22 deals with the nature of that reporting relationship, as well as the ability of the Chief Bureau Officer to delegate functions (either specific or general in nature) to staff members of the National Vetting Bureau.
Finally, section 22 reminds the reader that where a function has in fact been delegated by the Chief Bureau Officer, the person who’s been granted the delegated authority to fulfil the particular statutory function delegated, will be seen as having the same force and effect as if the function was being carried out by the Chief Bureau Officer in person.
This essay is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other professional advice.
Specific legal advice from a firm of solicitors should always be sought on the application of the law in any particular situation.
Whilst reasonable endeavours have been made to ensure the accuracy of the content, no liability whatsoever is accepted for any omissions or errors or for any action taken in reliance of the information in this essay.
