Ms Denise McCormilla:

It is absolutely right that we must begin with the child. However, we really need to take a little time out. I know the Government would like reports to be done by the end of June. It would be brilliant if everything that was required to be done was done but I do now know if that could happen. We have to study where we are at this point in time. We need a baseline of what is out there. Much more information is gathered now than we would have gathered in years gone by. For instance, Pobal has been doing reports on the child care sector for the past number of years. The report for 2014 should be ready, or is almost ready. That gives specific information which could be worked on in planning for the future. On issues and problems, reports were compiled last year on compliance with regulations and the specific difficulties from a compliance with legislation perspective.

We should be familiar with what we have and know who has qualifications from levels 5, 6, 7, and 8. The reality is very few have level 8 and few have level 7, but the majority all have level 5 qualifications now. That might seem very little. However, when we think back to a few years ago, the majority of people had nothing other than possibly the old Irish Preschool Play Association, IPPA, 20 hour introductory course. That is not that long ago. There has been a huge increase in access to qualifications. The difficulty is that every time people do a programme and obtain a qualification, there are always gaps. That is just the way it is. In particular, in relation to Síolta and Aistear, there are a lot of people who obtained their level 5 qualification before 2012 when there was a complete revision of the Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, programmes. They would, therefore, never have heard anything about Síolta or Aistear in the FETAC level 5 programmes, which is why we say there is a huge need for continuing professional development. Level 6 is really for people in supervisory positions and people may not be ready to move onto level 7 or level 8, or it may not be available.

The Competence Requirements in Early Childhood Education and Care, CoRe, report, recommends that 60% be degree-led. We are a long way from achieving that target. Ireland needs to agree what it wants from a graduate-led sector. However, we have to start from where we are now. It is not possible to get rid of all the people who are working in services, with their current level of qualification. However, we have to try to do the best we can to ensure they are the right people. It is like a crossroads for people working within the sector. They need to know what is ahead of them next year. We already know there are huge changes. September 2016 is a real crossroads. People will need to examine and determine if they want to continue to work within this sector. If they do, they will have to raise the bar and know what it is they need to do. If they do not want to do it or are not able to do it, they can leave the sector. There are lots of younger people coming in through the degree programmes who would like to work in the sector but who cannot because they need to work full-time unlike me a number of years ago when it suited me to work a few hours every week as a preschool leader.

We have to see where we are at, what has happened, what are the numbers and who has the different level qualifications. If they were linked into the national salary scale we are proposing, then we would know that so many people at level 5 should be on one particular scale, so many at level 6 should be on another and so many at level 7 and 8 should be on another one. We would then need an economist or someone who is good at maths - I am not - to quantify what that would cost. I do not think that would be hard to do with the level of information we currently have.

The other issue concerns community preschools. Our attitude is that every service should be a service that is at the heart of the community. What the management structure is does not matter. We have seen this over the years. These are the most brilliant independently managed services. They put families and children at the heart of their communities and at the centre of their practices. Equally, we have seen very mediocre and very poor providers.

People have had access to funding. We have a legacy of past Government policies, some of which have helped but some of which have created additional problems. Why have we got 70% of services in this country delivered by private providers? It is because of the Government schemes of grant aid that were available in the past. We have what we have because of what happened in the past, so how do we change it? We need to say to all services, regardless of their management structure, that they must comply with legislation, put the child first, adhere to services whereby the rights of the child are at the forefront of what they do and then they meet their Síolta standards and within that is Aistear. We have seen that happen with about 120 services which, in the past year or so, have met that higher standard level. They are really good services. We can aspire to that but we know we need more in order to be able to do it.

In response to an earlier question about childminders, many parents use childminders but there are many childminders who are not delivering services within their own home. They are going to the home of the child. They need to fall within this registration system. Many people use au pairs- sometimes it is richer people who are using au pairs- but is that in the best interests of the child? Everything we do has got to be influenced by our five national goals or outcomes, which are coming through the Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures policy document. We do not have our early years strategy yet but there is much which will guide us in the future.

Someone asked a question about who should do the inspections. Given her experience in Northern Ireland, Ms Hart might respond to that question.