Ms Bernie McNally:

The Deputy is absolutely right that we need more parental engagement and First 5 covers this. For the first time, we have given funding to the National Parents Council, which used to have a function in the primary and secondary school sector but now has a growing function in the early years space. There are 30 city and county child care committees around the country, many of whose boards have parent representatives. In any policy being developed in the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, we invite parental representatives, such as for school-age child care and childminding. Parents will be heavily involved and that is the right thing to do. First 5 is a whole-of-Government strategy for babies, young children and their families and we recognise that parents know what is best for their children. As Ms McDonnell said, the inspectorate is going to engage much more with parents and parents will be interviewed as part of future inspections.