Ms Moira O'Mara:

The visits are compliance checks rather than inspections. The contract which we have in place with all of the services sets out quality standards. The visits concentrate on checks of the attendance register, the number of children participating in the programme, the fee payment policy, ensuring parents are aware of the free preschool year, staff qualifications and so on. To facilitate parents and children, we allow transfers in and transfers out. They are the issues being checked.

They keep their antennae raised as to quality and also look at the implementation of Aistear and Síolta. It is a useful backup of compliance visits, which are not inspections against the regulations.