Longford Leader Opinion: Vetting of grandparents seems a bit far fetched

So now we are vetting grandmothers for child minding duties. What on earth have we come to at all, if family members cannot be trusted by their own, for minding their own?

It seems the Government has initiated a scheme which means that "registered" child minders are paid some amount....It's around €1,000.

Now I can understand the need to make some effort to regularise the scheme, but to vet the grandparents of children seems a bit far fetched to me.

My bemusement arises simply by the fact that those vetting, for example the Gardaí, seldom anymore know those being vetted, and whilst they can successfully find out if the individual has a criminal record, they rarely know them personally, and those who do, may have no knowledge whatsoever of abusive behaviour - where it exists.

After all, they can't control those in their own employment never mind start vetting those outside the existing system.

Since "centralisation" has become the norm, nobody knows anyone anymore, which somewhat compromises security issues.

I know a man who is sought by the banks to come in and make sure he's the holder of a bank account. The fact is, there isn't anyone in the particular bank who has a bull’s notion of what he looks like. We know, because I've been a customer in this particular bank for forty years now.

Yet, when I wanted to open a new account for a project some time back, my passport was brought into the bank, and presented. The person who took it, had to phone a few days later and apologise because nobody in the bank knew what I looked like. It's not too far from saying that the system is easily misled.

It's something we laugh at regularly.

Probably some bright spark in the Dublin office came up with the system.

Funny. And pathetic.