Dr. Caroline Cullen:

In response to Deputy Ward's question regarding resources, I want to reassure him by giving him an example of the resourcing we currently have in place within Tusla. With the support of our Department colleagues, and the Department more generally over a number of years, we have built up a strong children's services regulation unit that is well staffed and well resourced. That took place over the period during which Tusla was established from 2014 onwards, which is also the period in which we have seen increased regulation. I will try to ground that in some figures. In 2017, which is only four years ago, we had 37 staff in place who had responsibility for inspection and regulation of the early years sector. Staff numbers have increased by 100 up to 2021. We have worked with the Department to build up that resource and we now have a workforce with that responsibility of 107.

When it comes to this new area of regulation, we would work very closely with the early years sector in phase 1. It is called out in the paper shared earlier by Dr. Brooks that there will be in-depth costing against the numbers that will require regulation and inspection over the next seven-year plan. We will work closely with the Department to identify what level of resources we will need additionally to enable us to carry out that function.