Report found duplicate payments, no evidence of Garda vetting, and missing engineering reports among hosts and accommodation providers.
By Conor O’Carroll.
An internal audit of the Irish Language Scheme has found a number of serious deficiencies requiring immediate rectification by management.
The audit, conducted by consultancy firm BDO and obtained by Village, found several of the hosts, when audited, had no evidence of Garda vetting on file.
The report notes that “anyone who works or volunteers with children and vulnerable adults on behalf of the Department must be Garda vetted” and that it is “a legal offence to permit a person to carry out activities without receiving a vetting disclosure from the National Vetting Bureau”.
The Department of Tourism told the auditors that administration of the Garda vetting process for host families is outsourced to Comhchoiste Náisiúnta na gColáistí Samhraidh, the group representing the majority of Irish colleges.
Inspections are carried out on a spot-check basis, and that the frequency of visits was not formally defined meaning some hosts may go years between inspections
The Irish Language Scheme is run by the Department and sees families in the Gaeltacht receive daily subsidies for hosting second and third-level students attending Irish language colleges.
The scheme has been running for over 50 years and aims to support and enrich the Irish language and Gaeltacht areas. Approximately 26,000 students attend Irish language courses every year and are housed by roughly 500 registered active Gaeltacht Hosts.
As well as individual host families, two residential college accommodation-providers were audited and were also found to have no evidence of Garda vetting on file.
The report found that no “oversight of Garda vetting” is sought by the Department “prior to granting a college accommodation recognition to host students”.
These providers also had no evidence of the relevant engineering certificates on file or any site inspection reports.
The Department told the auditors that these site visits are used to ensure “that the Host’s accommodation is maintained to an acceptable standard and upholding the recognition requirements”, including checking the premises are safe and that Garda vetting is in place.
However, they also said that inspections are carried out on a spot-check basis, and that the frequency of visits was not formally defined meaning some hosts may go years between inspections.
The audit, conducted by consultancy firm BDO and obtained by Village, found several of the hosts had no evidence of Garda vetting on file when audited
The Department told the auditors that efforts are made to visit hosts that had “not received a visit in the previous couple of years”.
The audit also criticised the lack of an IT system to assist in processing payments made to host families.
This, they say, increases the risk of human error and contributed to duplicate payments worth almost €25,000 being made to nine households in 2022.
The error was eventually identified by the Department and the money has since been recovered, but the auditors recommended they review all payments made in 2022 to ensure further errors weren’t missed.
Other recommendations made by the audit relating to ensuring each host and accommodation-provider has the necessary Garda vetting and safety certificates were accepted by the Department and a number of actions were set up to improve the failings identified.
A spokesperson for the Department of Tourism said: “The Department has accepted the recommendations made by its Internal Audit Unit and has now put structures in place in order to ensure that they are implemented within the timescales committed to in the audit report”.
They also outlined a new policy put in place after the audit whereby “the Department will now insist that all individuals above the age of sixteen years sector, including members of all host families, successfully complete a Garda Vetting process every three years, rather than on a once-off basis as was the case previously”.
This article has been updated to include a response from a Department of Tourism spokesperson received after publication.
