Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and Mr. McKiernan for their contributions. It is very important that we have this meeting today. We were all sick to the pit of our stomachs when more than six months ago, RTE exposed what was going on in certain pre-school and early childhood centres. The Minister is right to make this a priority. Nothing, including amendments to legislation, can be brought in fast enough because what we witnessed in that television programme was appalling. I acknowledge the Minister is making strides to bring about reforms but there are some areas in which I worry about the speed of the reforms.

The Minister said a core problem for the service was that there were vacancies for inspectors in some parts of the country. Six months on, not all of those inspectors have been hired. Last week during Private Members' business, the Minister confirmed that there were regions in the country which still did not have an inspector six months on. I would not survive in my office for six months without a critical support staff member. Why is it taking so long to hire these staff? The length of time it is taking is unacceptable. Why do we persist in hiring public health nurses for these roles despite the fact people across the board have called for experts in early childhood care to be hired? The Minister is right that she got cross-party support for the amendment to the Child Care Act 1991 to bring in new tough sanctions, which are welcome.

I would like to focus on the quality of care and the regulations. When will the regulations be published? Will we put these new regulations on quality of care on a statutory basis? Will we bring in robust legislation with a clear framework for quality of care so that we can give parents the reassurance they need in this regard?

The training fund is welcome. I said before that this was too restrictive, as one of the issues exposed on the "Prime Time" programme was the inadequate support structures for management. Management could not avail of this restricted fund. Will the fund be available to services throughout the country? I raised a concern about the manner in which the initial fund was distributed. Will the €1.5 million fund for this year be available to all service providers?

Last week on Question Time I raised with the Minister the bureaucratic nightmare of the vetting process where there is a need for double vetting for people attending a course and going on placements. The Minister said she would have an urgent meeting with the Data Protection Commissioner. Has that meeting taken place and if so, what was the outcome of that meeting? Can the Minister give us an update on vetting times because that is very important?

I refer to unregulated childminders, an area I have highlighted on numerous occasions. We are talking about paid non-relatives and not about a grandparent, an aunt or an uncle. The Minister said she would welcome our views on parental choice. Sometimes parents are left with no choice but to go down this route because it is the most affordable option. If we are serious about a quality early childhood care, we cannot ignore this sector in which there are approximately 19,000 paid childminders looking after 50,000 children.

There are serious vulnerabilities involved because children are being minded by non-vetted people. If we are serious about having a real quality agenda in future we need to examine that matter.

Before Christmas, the Minister said she would advise us about the new structure for the mentoring scheme. Has a decision been made on the structure of the new mentoring scheme? Can we be sure that there will be national coverage in every county for this scheme?