Ms Fiona McDonnell:

To build on what I have said already, within the early years inspectorate we have 47 inspectors, and with our recent campaign we are going up to 57 inspectors. Within the service in the Gaeltacht areas, we only have one inspector in one Gaeltacht area who is proficient to carry out full inspections through Irish. Within the other areas we are building up, so we are limited on that.

When we engage with the staff in the naíonraí, they speak in Irish and English to us and we try to respond in Irish depending on the level the inspector has. In particular, Mr. Smyth stated that we will look at the survey and our workforce and we will identify people in areas whom we can upskill so that we can improve on that.