Ms Teresa Heeney:

The first point of the plan is development of the workforce. We welcome what we have heard already today from the Minister in terms of new initiatives in this regard. We propose the introduction of a registration system for all staff working in the sector and that every staff member working directly with children as a supervisor or manager has a suitable qualification, be that a level 5, 6 or 7 qualification. As stated by Ms Gunning, the "Prime Time" programme showed services that clearly were being poorly managed. Training must be funded because people working in this sector are poorly paid. Under the terms and conditions of the free preschool year no time is provided for planning, evaluating, training or holding meetings with parents. We would urge that this be addressed as a matter of urgency. There are many professionals working in the sector on 38-week contracts. These people become unemployed during the summer months. This is no way to grow the sector if we want to retain a professional workforce therein.

The second point relates to quality. We welcome the Minister's comments in regard to a mentoring system for Síolta and Aistear. We have been part of the pilot to which the Minister referred and part of the EU presentation which was well received by people from the Nordic countries where it appears everything is glowing. They were very impressed by what they saw in the Clock Tower a few weeks ago. We intend to do a further presentation for Members of the Oireachtas on 19 June in the AV Room. We will be in touch with Members before that.

On the issue of quality, there is huge concern among our members in relation to the lack of special needs assistants for preschool children. Many of our members are currently reporting that they have to refuse access to their services to children with additional needs because they do not have the staff to give the children the time and attention they need. We recently heard an example of twins, one of whom attends a playschool in Kildare while the other spends most of her time at home and only attends for three hours per week because she does not have access to special needs assistance hours.

We again want to take the opportunity to raise this matter. We welcome everything we have heard today about the inspection system. We would encourage the adoption of that graded approach to which the Minister referred, which is in line with the approach in England of awarding bronze, silver and gold levels following inspection. We know from our colleagues in England that parents are very attracted to this grading system as it gives them an understanding of the levels of compliance in the sector.

The fourth issue in our five point plan is the need to ring-fence investment. We know we lag well behind. As the Minister alluded to, under our system parents are given a substantial amount in direct cash payments, but only recently has the State invested in infrastructure. We encourage the Minister to plan for a guarantee on rates of capitation and child to staff ratios for the sector.

Our fifth point is the need to reform legislation. In the main child minders and after school services for children are not governed by legislation at present. We would like to reiterate the need for regulation of these sectors.