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Irish Republic

The Republic of Ireland has legislation that enables individuals to obtain a copy of any criminal record information that may be held on them by the Republic of Ireland police authority (Garda Síochána). Requests for access are made under Section 4. Of the Data Protection Act 1988.

Application procedure

Under the Data Protection Act 1988 in the Republic of Ireland an individual is entitled to obtain a copy of any criminal record information held on them by the Garda Síochána (the police force of the Republic of Ireland), subject to certain exemptions. A request made to the Garda under the Data Protection Act must be made in writing to the address below:

Inspector in Charge
Garda Central Vetting Unit
Racecourse Road
Thurles
Co. Tipperary

The Central vetting Unit can also be contacted by telephone on 00353-50427300 or by Fax 00353-50427373 The written application must make clear that the request for information is being made under section 4 of the Data Protection Act 1988 and that you require all the information that may be held about you on computer.

You must also supply the following personal details:

• Name & Current Address
• Date of Birth
• Previous addresses within the Republic of Ireland, and
• Previous names (if applicable)

Cost

A request for information under the Act carries a fee of €6.35 euros. Payment which must be in the form of a cheque, postal order or bank draft should be made payable to ‘The Accountant, Department of Justice’ and sent with the written letter of application. Cash should not be forwarded with applications. Payments in foreign currency, foreign cheques or foreign postal orders will not be accepted.

Content of extract

Information given under section 4 of the Irish Data Protection Act 1988 detail all convictions recorded against an individual, regardless of the time that may have lapsed since it was recorded. A typical entry will list the venue of any court hearing, the nature of the offence and the conviction/sentence details.

The document produced in response to a request under section 4 has no security features (i.e. no watermarks, etc), as it will simply list any convictions on regular paper (or state that no criminal record information is held on the named individual).

Turnaround time

Once you have made your request, and paid any appropriate fee, an individual can expect to receive a copy of his or her record within 40 days.

The CRB has taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the information contained herein is as accurate and comprehensive as possible. In order to maintain the accuracy of the information, the CRB will update the information periodically.

However, the CRB cannot be held responsible for the level of service provided by overseas authorities. As such, please do not contact the CRB regarding applications submitted to overseas authorities.