Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not a member of the committee but I am interested in this issue. I welcome the witnesses and officials from the Department. The Minister launched the new association, the Association of Childhood Professionals, last week and I presume the group will be at our future meetings. Early Childhood Ireland has also been a professional organisation for many years.

I must declare my interest in that I went around Ireland inspecting Montessori schools before there was any inspection regime. I lectured in Montessori colleges in Ireland. Accountability must be paramount in respect of those running and managing premises. Deputy Catherine Byrne asked where the management was in any of those situations. Qualifications are important but we cannot lose sight of the people and the small facilities that have been working forever with children. They have excellent services. The system of accreditation of prior learning, APL, must be introduced to ensure people who have worked with children all their lives and have the empathy and sympathy are recognised and that it is part of training. People have acquired master's level qualifications in recognition of APL but it has not been considered by the Department of Education and Skills in the context of childhood education. It is important it is done to ensure people working there are recognised.

In Scotland, 10% of the inspection staff come from the education Department and there is integration between it and the health Department. It should not be on one Department to supply all of the resources in early childhood care and education. Why do we call it education if the Department of Education and Skills gets off scot free without providing any funding?

Some 80% of the child's development takes place between birth and three years of age. We are losing the plot if we do not put money into the child at that age. Between three years and six years, the child needs care and education. A report from Scotland dealing with 2005, 2006 and 2007 shows integration and care and the development of a model. We must examine it.

There are so many issues and I have such short time. We must expand what we are inspecting. In 1991, I sat on the expert working group on child care along with Ms Gunning. Many of the points being made now came up then. These include physical, emotional, language, learning, family support and needs support. It is important not to lose sight of what is not regulated. This includes after-school care and au pairs. We must have the correct debate.

I congratulate the Minister on what she has done since her appointment, which has put the issue on the map. It is excellent that the Department of Children and Youth Affairs exists for the first time. It recognises that we can put children first, not on paper but in a Department. I congratulate Mr. Gordon Jeyes on his appointment. In July 2011, he said that things had changed and were seen to have changed. Accountability structures in HSE are similar to those in the Catholic Church in regard to child abuse when the HSE should be on the side of the public. It is hard to find people in the HSE on the side of the public and on the side of children. Mr. Gordon Jeyes is changing that and I welcome it.