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

A number of members asked about regulation of after-school child care. The introduction of a regulatory environment for after-school services is a priority for the Department and must be dealt with. Previous child care legislation did not include after-school services, so legislation must be introduced to deal with it. We must amend the legislation to deal with that. The child care regulations were last amended in 2006 and we must deal with after-school services as part of the review of the regulations. In the meantime, amendments will be made to the contracts for the provision of services to school-age children under the CCS and CETS programmes to provide for appropriate regulation. This will be done when the contracts are being drafted. There is work to be done in terms of legislation and regulation of the after-school sector. Again, like much in this area, the sector has grown up incrementally without regulation being in place. That is the reality of how services have developed in Ireland. It is not good enough and requires a change in legislation. In the new scheme we are introducing, the regulation will be built into the contracts to deal with the current scheme, which is very important.

In respect of Síolta and Aistear, the preschool year has required services to implement Síolta since its introduction in 2010. What we need to do now is to build in the support for this. I mentioned that the only support that has been given so far has been via the Department, the local child care committees or voluntary child care organisations and under the preschool year. International practice has indicated that the best way to support the development of the Síolta and Aistear framework, which is about the curriculum and the work done with the children, is to provide regular mentoring support. I will be seeking resources to put that layer into preschool services because it is badly needed and is the best way to build up the quality that is needed. I think Mr. Wolfe said that this has happened in Northern Ireland. It is the way to go forward but it requires resources, which I will be fighting for, because it is essential that we move towards that.

I do not know the details concerning RTE and reporting because that is being dealt with directly by the HSE. Mr. Jeyes will address that. Deputy Conway also made a point about co-ordination, which is extremely important. I have already said that there has been no national approach to this issue. In much the same way as was the case with child protection and reporting from local child protection teams, we needed far better national data that we have had. We have been addressing that, which is the reason we are setting up the new Child and Family Support Agency. Equally, we need better co-ordination. I accept Deputy Conway's point and discussed this with Pobal last week. We need more co-ordination between Pobal, the inspection regime within the HSE, the education inspection regime and the child care committees. The approach has been fragmented and needs to be more co-ordinated. This is precisely what the CEO designate, Mr. Jeyes, has been doing in terms of moving to a national approach. This is the challenge we are meeting in every area relating to children's services. We must move from local and regional to national and bring about better co-ordination between the services that are out there. That is being worked on and I can only agree with Deputy Conway that this issue needs to be dealt with.

Deputy Naughten raised a point about compliance and how we can look at what is happening, and said that sanctions need to be more varied where there are breaches of regulations. That is very clear from the events of recent weeks but also from what inspectors have been saying. It needs to be much more nuanced than it is at present. It needs to be more graduated, which will happen as we build in the new national standards. We will begin to see that in the inspection regime. As I said earlier, I have already replied to Deputy Naughten's question on after-school services.

Deputy Troy asked about how widespread abuse is. Clearly, the cameras saw unacceptable behaviour. The way to avoid that and to ensure that children are not having that experience is through the combination of factors we have been talking about here today. It is about reporting. Under Children First, if people see abuse, it should be reported. There are very clear guidelines on reporting that kind of abuse. If people see it, it should certainly be reported. Other changes are required as well with regard to training, and management needs to pay more attention to recruitment and suitability for the work. Not everybody is suitable to work in this sector and we need more focus on the suitability of staff. This is a very basic requirement with regard to CVs, taking up references and making sure that people are suitable for the work, because training and qualifications will do much but if one does not like working with children there is not much point in working with a child care provider. That came across very clearly.