Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs is giving the highest priority to the reports we have heard and to the investigations which are under way. She is and will be receiving up-to-date reports on the progress of those investigations and she is taking a direct and personal interest in them.

With regard to the inspection of child care facilities, in both 2011 and 2012 over 2,600 child care providers were subject to inspection by the HSE. Basically, what we need here is that parents are assured the Irish child care sector is safe and that practitioners are committed to ensuring the highest standards of care for children. For that reason, the Government has brought in updated Children First guidance on child protection and is currently finalising the legislation to put compliance with Children First on a statutory footing. The Government has also brought in the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act, which puts on a statutory basis the mandatory vetting of persons who are working with children or other vulnerable people. There has been a problem with regard to the processing of applications for vetting, and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has granted sanction for an additional 25 staff to be redeployed from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to the Garda central vetting unit. These personnel are currently undergoing training and will be operational within a short time.

The Government is very conscious of the continuing imperative to deliver improvements in quality in the early years of child care provision. HIQA has, for the first time, been given responsibility for child protection standards. The actual inspection of the child care facilities is a matter for the HSE and for the inspectorate which has that responsibility. The cases which are now in the public domain, and which are the subject of the RTE documentary, are being investigated by the HSE and by the Garda. We are taking the issue very seriously indeed.

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