Mr. Toby Wolfe:

I will take the question on information sharing with parents on early-years services. A main focus of the measures being proposed is to ensure that parents have more information about the quality of provision in early years services and, in particular, where enforcement actions are being taken by Tusla, the inspectorate, where there are significant concerns about quality, the parents should have information about that. The information for parents provides assurance for them of the quality of the care their children are receiving. It is also to empower parents so that they are in a position to have open conversations with providers about the quality of care.

The hallmark of a high-quality early-years service is one where there is open and ongoing discussion between the provider and parents. There are two types of provision in the general scheme. One is to create a general power for Tusla to disclose information about the quality of service to parents. That is something Tusla already does. It already publishes inspection reports in every case and has done for some years - it regularly reviews what they look like and ensures they are accessible - but that has been on an administrative basis and it has never had a legal basis. We want to make it very clear that Tusla has a legal power to disclose appropriate information about the quality of services. We are also proposing that in the various stages in the enforcement process where there are significant concerns around non-compliance with regulations that Tusla should have the ability to inform parents about what is going on. There was a consultation process that underpinned this last year with providers and parents and we heard concerns from providers about the importance of their relationship with parents. The legislation provides that in the first instance, Tusla may instruct a service provider that the provider gives the information to parents about the enforcement action. It is only if the provider does not do so that Tusla will have the power to get the parental contact details and provide the information itself. We are trying to support that relationship between the provider and the parents.