An IT software system deployed by the Garda last year to speed up the vetting of people wanting to work with children or vulnerable people has won a major award.
The Garda eVetting project, which has slashed the vetting process from nine weeks to just five days, took home the top prize in the Ireland eGovernment Awards.
The awards, now in their 16th year, recognise advances made in the use of digital technology by the public sector in Ireland.
The judges deemed the eVetting project to be the overall winner at the awards due to the positive impact it has had both for the Garda as well as for citizens looking to be vetted.
Paper-based process
Prior to the launch of the system last April, the vetting process was a lengthy paper-based process, with applications taking up to nine weeks to decide. In the first quarter of 2017, however, 96 per cent of applications were received online, with the majority of decisions within five working days.
Last year a total of 389,548 vetting applications were received by the Garda.
Some 85 per cent of registered organisations have already transitioned to eVetting in its first year.
The eVetting system provides real-time tracking of applications for organisations, while for the Garda it has significantly reduced the data entry requirements and rekeying of information between internal systems.
Richard Corbridge, chief information officer of the Health Service Executive (HSE), was awarded the individual Net Visionary award.
Individual category winners at the Ireland eGovernment Awards:
General
DPER Open Data Portal
Health and Medical
HSE – Maternity and Newborn Clinical Information Systems
Agri and Food Science
Teagasc Environmental Knowledge Transfer
Internet of Things
An Post ILAS
Gaeilge
Conradh na Gaeilge – Peig.ie
Local Government
South Dublin CoCo In Context 4 website
Marketing and social media
Dublin Bus Social Media
Mobile
Dept of Foreign Affairs – Travel Wise.
Open Source
An Garda Síochána eVetting
Promoting Ireland Overseas
Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs – Irishgenealogy.ie
Universal design
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission – Ihrec.ie
Innovation
Dublin Bus #DB (Twitter customer service)
Net Visionary
Richard Corbridge, CIO HSE
