Ms Bernie McNally:

I would add a departmental perspective in respect of both questions. I agree with everything the representatives from Tusla said. The first question was on whether we can be absolutely certain that this is an isolated incident. We can never be certain of that, but we can offer the committee the evidence that is out there. While the Department relies hugely on information from Tusla and advice from the regulator on how we are doing in the sector, other sources also inform the Department and the actions it needs to take. As well as the 2,500 inspection reports we received from Tusla last year, we received information from the Department of Education and Skills inspectorate, which inspected 700 services in the ECCE programme last year. We also have the Better Start quality development service and 130 expert practitioners who are working with services all the time. They have worked with 3,300 services. Tusla's unsolicited information service is really important. We also receive information within the Department, so we have a number of sources. Parents are increasingly a source of information as well. We recently funded a post in the National Parents Council, in collaboration with the Department of Education and Skills, to build up the role of parents in the sector, to help them influence policy, etc. We have committed to do much more under the Children First initiative. I just wanted to say that we have many sources influencing and shaping our policies.

Regarding Children First and training, I would add to what Mr. Quinlan said about having that extra layer of training. Early learning and care practitioners have access to all Tusla's resources, including online training and so on. We have also developed a number of other resources. A national steering group has been in operation since 2013, and there are 60 childcare committee staff throughout the country who are trained in training staff in respect of the Children First guidelines. Some 15,000 childcare staff have done the additional training on top of basic training. We continue to invest in that year on year. We have a dedicated chairperson for that group and a dedicated co-ordinator for that amount of activity. We are doing as much as we can.

It is also important to note that early learning and care staff are protected under protected disclosures legislation, so in that horrendous scenario where they may feel that they or their employment conditions are under threat, they are protected. One would hope that only a tiny number of them would have to use those protections, but they are there.