Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As we had to repeal all of the section, that is the reason it has to be repeated in this Bill. What the legislation is doing is providing for the first time that if one runs a preschool service, of which there are 4,500, one must be registered. We are coming from a situation where there has been relatively little regulation of the sector and not even registration. All one had to do was notify the HSE that one was going to open a preschool service. Certainly that was not good enough. We are providing for registration and, as I have said many times, developing a broader preschool quality agenda, including the requirement that people must have a higher level of training before they can work in the sector. When that provision becomes effective from September of this year and next year, one will not be allowed work in the sector unless one has a certain level of training. That is the right thing to do because standards are linked to training and are also linked to inspection.

What is being done in the inspection area? We are putting the reports of inspections online. For the first time there are more than 1,600 reports online from every county in Ireland. People no longer have to go through freedom of information. Every time a service is inspected, a report is put online. Reports on inspections which have taken place in recent weeks are online. There is much greater transparency in the sector in terms of inspection. As Members will be aware, I got funding in the budget for more training, a mentoring programme to support the sector and the recruitment of new inspectors as we did not have an inspector in every county in Ireland and we need extra inspectors.

The question of childminders arose. Some countries have said that parents take private decisions about the care of their children. They employ a person and make a decision. Some parents seek references and take great care with that decision. Childminding has not been regulated in this country unless one is minding a certain number in one's home. It is viewed as a private decision taken by parents. It is an area some believe should be regulated in the same way as I have described the childminding early years services are being regulated, asked to reach certain standards and inspected to ensure they reach those standards. Given there are perhaps 50,000 childminders, how do we move towards a similar situation that would support parents' decisions? I think many parents would like to see that. Others may prefer to be allowed to take their own individual decision but most parents would want to see standards and support for those childminders.

It has been a very informal sector despite incentives to register and despite incentives to link with the local child care committee. Only a very small proportion of childminders have done so compared with the numbers who are looking after children. In terms of moving towards greater State involvement with childminders, that is an issue to be examined in the early years strategy which will be brought forward next year. I also asked the task force to examine it. This is all part of a greater focus on the early years. In some ways it is surprising this topic has not received greater attention up to now, but I certainly think it will be on agenda as we move forward. There is also a question of resources.

We are beginning work on the preschool quality agenda and moving to ensure greater transparency, higher standards and put some training in place. There had been a huge focus on buildings, not on the quality of the service. I believe the discussion on how to regulate and support childminders will be part of that discussion. It has to be incremental, building on the work being done with the preschool quality agenda and the early years school services.