Please Click Here for a Full Guide on Getting Set Up as a Coach or Volunteer - including Vetting This link takes you to the Official GAA website where you will find all the forms needed https://www.gaa.ie/the-gaa/child-safeguarding-and-protection/vetting The GAA has a long established principle of vetting any person who, on our behalf, works with children or vulnerable adults in our Association. This principle is enshrined in rule through our Code of Best Practice in Youth Sport and has become part of the overall recruitment and selection process for those who wish to work with us in the GAA, in a voluntary or paid role. Vetting services for the Association are currently overseen by the National Childrens Office in Croke Park while Comhairle Uladh acts on our behalf in coordinating AccessNI services. Our international units are obliged to adhere to the legislative vetting and police background checks that are required in the jurisdiction in which they operate. Who needs to be vetted? In the GAA any person who carries out a role of responsibility such as coaching, managing or training underage teams or indeed adult teams that contain any player under 18 yrs. of age must be vetted. It also applies to organising underage activities or refereeing underage games. Thereafter, each club shall decide if other roles merit a person being vetted. Legislation The National Vetting Bureau (Children & Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 - 2016 commenced on 29th April 2016 and from that date a statutory obligation was placed upon the GAA to ensure that all persons who on our behalf undertook ‘relevant work’ with children has been vetted prior to taking up that role in Ireland. The term ‘relevant work’ in the GAA includes any role of responsibility such as coaching, managing or training underage teams or indeed adult teams that contain any player under 18 yrs. of age. It also applies to organising underage activities or refereeing underage games. The Act also established the National Vetting Bureau (NVB) to oversee the e-vetting services previously administered by the Garda Central Vetting Unit. Is it an offence if you are not vetted? It is a criminal offence, for a person acting on behalf of the GAA, or for the GAA as an Association to permit any person to commence working with children on behalf of the Association without that person first obtaining a vetting disclosure from the National Vetting Bureau in respect of the role for which they have been recruited. It is also a breach of GAA rule if you are working with children or vulnerable adults on behalf of the Association and have not been vetted.