Garda vetting, police certificates and travel with a conviction

A conviction in the District Court stays with you in three places that the court never mentions: the vetting disclosure for a job with children or vulnerable people, the police certificate a foreign embassy asks for, and the questions on a visa or travel authorisation form. Each has its own rules, and none of them is the same as the spent convictions rule. This guide takes them one at a time, with drink driving as the example because it is the conviction people most often ask about.

Garda vetting

Who is vetted and how

Garda vetting is carried out by the National Vetting Bureau for people who work or volunteer with children or vulnerable adults, under the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 to 2016. An organisation registered with the Bureau applies on your behalf; you cannot apply for yourself. You complete an invitation form, the Bureau checks the Garda record, and the disclosure goes to you first and then to the organisation. Most jobs need no vetting at all: an office job, a trade, retail, hospitality and driving do not involve the Bureau unless the role involves children or vulnerable people.

What is disclosed

The Bureau's own statement of what is disclosed covers three things:

• Convictions, including those in the District Court.
• Prosecutions, pending or completed, whether or not they ended in a conviction. That is why a Probation Act section 1(1) dismissal, a strike out or an Adult Caution can appear on a disclosure although none of them is a conviction.
• Specified information, for relevant work: information held by the Garda or a scheduled organisation, short of a conviction, that gives rise to a bona fide concern that you may harm a child or vulnerable person. It is disclosed only after a review process in which you can make submissions.

The section 14A seven-year rule

Section 14A of the Acts, inserted in 2016 alongside the spent convictions Act, stops the Bureau disclosing a conviction where all of these are true:

1. It is your only conviction.
2. It is more than seven years old.
3. The offence was committed when you were 18 or over.
4. The sentence has been completed.
5. The offence is not on the excluded schedule, which covers sexual offences, offences against children and vulnerable people, and other listed serious offences.

A single drink-driving conviction, more than seven years old, with the fine paid and the disqualification served, is not disclosed. A drink-driving conviction from five years ago is. Two convictions of any kind are both disclosed, because the rule applies to a single conviction only; the minor motoring and public order carve-outs in the spent convictions Act do not apply to vetting. The spent convictions tool applies the tests to your own conviction and dates.

If the disclosure is wrong

You see the disclosure before the organisation does. If it shows something that is not yours, or is inaccurate, you can dispute it with the Bureau before it goes any further. Specified information has its own appeal.

Vetting and your job

Whether a conviction can cost you a job you already have, and what an employer may ask, is an employment law question. EmploymentWise explains it in a conviction and your job.

Police certificates

A police certificate is a letter from the Garda, applied for through your local Garda station or district office, that states your convictions, or that you have none. Foreign embassies ask for it for visas and residency, and some foreign employers for work. It is issued for a stated purpose, and the Garda may ask what it is for.

A police certificate discloses all convictions, whether or not they are spent under the 2016 Act, because the foreign authority is asking under its own law and the Irish Act does not bind it. A section 1(1) dismissal, a strike out and an Adult Caution are not convictions and should not appear as such; if you are unsure what yours would show, a data access request to the Garda shows what the record holds. See criminal record in Ireland.

Travel with a conviction

Each country asks its own questions, under its own law, and the Irish spent convictions Act does not apply to any of them. The one rule that applies everywhere is to answer the question that is asked, truthfully. A false answer discovered at a border is treated far more seriously than the conviction it hid, and it can bar you for years.

The United States: the ESTA

The ESTA, the online authorisation for visa-free travel, asks whether you have been arrested or convicted of a crime that resulted in serious damage to property or serious harm to another person or a government authority, and whether you have violated any law relating to controlled substances. The US rules on admissibility turn on crimes involving moral turpitude and on drug offences, regardless of whether a conviction is spent in Ireland.

A single drink-driving conviction is not usually treated as a crime of moral turpitude, and most people with one travel on an ESTA after answering the questions as worded. Drug convictions, including a section 3 possession conviction, are different: a drug offence is a listed ground and a visa interview is usually needed. Multiple offences, offences involving injury, and theft or fraud are also treated more seriously. Where in doubt, the US embassy in Dublin's visa section is the authority, and this site does not advise on US immigration law.

Canada

Canada treats drink driving as a serious offence for immigration purposes, and a conviction can make a person inadmissible, including for a holiday or a transit stop. Criminal rehabilitation can be applied for after five years from the completion of the sentence, and a temporary resident permit may be available in the meantime for a specific trip. The Canadian authorities decide; apply before you book.

Australia

Australian visa applications ask about any conviction, and the answer is assessed against the character test. A substantial criminal record, which means a sentence of twelve months or more, fails the test. A District Court conviction with a fine or a short sentence is disclosed on the form and assessed; a drink-driving conviction with a fine is not normally a bar, but it must be declared.

The United Kingdom

The UK applies its own rehabilitation periods under its own law, which are shorter than Ireland's for many sentences: a fine or a short sentence becomes spent under UK law on the UK timetable, and the UK's visa and entry questions use UK definitions. An Irish citizen travelling to the UK under the Common Travel Area is not asked these questions at the border; they arise for work in regulated roles and for UK vetting.

Elsewhere

Most EU states do not ask about convictions for a short visit. For residency, work or a visa anywhere, expect to be asked, expect a police certificate to be required, and expect it to show everything.

Honesty on forms

The same advice applies to a job application, an insurance proposal, a vetting form and a visa form. Read the question. If it asks about convictions, a spent conviction need not be disclosed in Ireland and a non-conviction outcome is not a conviction; if it asks about prosecutions, arrests or cautions, it is asking something wider. If it is a foreign form, the Irish spent convictions rule does not apply. Where a question is unclear, answer it as fully as the words require and add an explanation; nobody has been refused for explaining too much, and many have been refused for the opposite.

What each outcome leaves on the record is in criminal record in Ireland, and the seven-year rule itself is in spent convictions and the seven-year rule. For drink driving specifically, see is drink driving a criminal record, and for drugs, drugs conviction, travel, vetting and work.

Where this leaves you

Use the spent convictions tool to see whether your conviction would be disclosed in Garda vetting under section 14A and the date it becomes spent. If you may qualify for legal aid, ask the judge for it at your first appearance; the tests are on legal aid. A solicitor can tell you, before you plead, what each outcome would mean for vetting and travel, and an immigration lawyer in the country concerned is the person to ask about a visa: how to find a solicitor. If this is weighing on you, support lists who to talk to.