Post
by Brigid from Ireland » Sat Aug 31, 2013 12:23 am
In general, police clearance is NOT needed to work in Ireland.
It IS needed for certain professions. So for example if you wish to register as a teacher you must have police clearance to register and you cannot work as a teacher until you are registered. So if your profession requires registration ask the registration body if you need police clearance.
If it is easy to get police clearance I would get it anyway, but it may not be required. If you do need police clearance you will need to get it from all countries where you have lived. So say you are from America but studied in Canada to become a teacher - you will need police clearance from both Canada and America.
One further point. Police clearance from your home country or countries other than Ireland where you have lived is the business of the country in question. They decide how to do the police clearance. I do not know how easy or difficult it is, because it depends on your home country.
Police clearance (known as garda vetting) for any time you reside in Ireland is an absolute pain!!! They require you to list every address at which you have lived (not the ones for short holidays, but every house you ever rented) in Ireland. This can mean a long list, because some people move frequently.
The databases communicate and cross reference, so if you are registered as a tenant with the tenant registration board (PTRB) and fail to mention this on your garda vetting form because you only lived there for two months and you forgot to include the address on your form, it will look suspicious.
You can have no gaps in dates, so if you register as living at 1 Main Street Dublin for 1 Feb 2012 to 1 Aug 2012 and your next tenancy picks up on 1 Dec 2012 they will ask about the gap in the record and if you say you went home to Canada for those four months you will need a new police clearance from Canada, to cover the four months visit.
Also if your name is a common one (eg Mr John Murphy) and you live in rented accommodation at a place where a different Mr John Murphy lived at some stage, it is possible for the databases to think you are the same person, and if the other person with the same name is a criminal it raises a problem for you.
A friend of mine is plagued by his first cousin. They share the same quite unusual name - named after their common grandfather - and as they lived in rural Ireland in houses built on the family farm they shared the exact same address when young. One lad got into minor trouble when young and it has had consequences for both when applying to visit America - it is because there is a criminal record associated with that name at that address.
BL
