Ms Marian Quinn:

Senator McGreehan is correct about the potential for drop off. Regulation will be something that, even with a light touch coming in gently, is a change of practice. We know a change is something that takes a while for people to embrace and to engage with, depending on the level of change. These are changes that will need to be made in the childminder's own home, and possibly to the infrastructure of the childminder's home and to the routine and order in it. I would worry if it is not done in a way that brings childminders with them in terms of having built up trust, and that the trust, once regulation starts, will not snowball. We know, from experience in centre-based care that some of the level of regulation required is excessive. There are small services that cater for what could be 15 children up to services that cater for 300 children which are all experiencing the same level of regulation. I suppose there would want to be absolute assurances for the childminders that is not something that will happen.

At the centre of this are children and their safety. Obviously, that is paramount, but we need to do it in a phased way to prevent that drop off. It comes down to the building of trust because if you will not trust your partners in this development, you will say you are leaving because you do not know what is coming down the road or if this is the start of a slippery slope. We need to have people mindful of that in the process.