Mr. Bernard Gloster:

The number of concerns that parents have expressed to us this year is 90. Those 90 concerns triggered 17 inspections. The Chair may recall that during the previous Dáil, I met the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs. I believe Deputy Sherlock was a member of that committee. When I met that committee, I committed to developing and increasing the opportunities for parents to be more fully informed about inspection activity and for them to participate in it, effectively. We have done that incrementally over the past 18 months. Covid distorted it because centres were closed. We are starting to see an increase in notifications, complaints and issues. That is probably because we have a better reporting system. It is not necessarily indicative of the service deteriorating in any particular way.