Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would be concerned at the time lines for the legislation. After the children's referendum, we were told that the child and family support agency Bill would be ready and the heads of the Bill had been approved at that stage. The Taoiseach did not indicate the timeline for the Children First Bill, which is the critical legislation on child protection and welfare.

There are immediate issues that could be dealt with fairly quickly. First, will the Taoiseach publish a timeline for recruitment of additional inspectors, crucially, in areas where there are no inspectors for a variety of reasons? Second, a workforce development plan for early childhood and care staff in education was published in 2010. We need a clear time line for the activation of that work-force plan because what emerged last evening was quite a significant number of staff not trained. Approximately one quarter of all staff in these settings are not trained or do not have qualifications. That workforce development plan is ready to action. Could the Taoiseach indicate when the Government intends to action that?

There has been much talk about the model of compliance and the inspection regime. I asked last week - the Minister was asked some months ago - whether, given what has transpired, there is an urgent need to bring the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, into this area and to ask HIQA to oversee and take over the inspection of these settings. The public has confidence in the Health Information and Quality Authority's objectivity, independence and capacity to bring rigour, in terms of inspection and the enforcement of quality control in a variety of settings. There is a need to reflect on that. The Minister, in reply to a parliamentary question, stated that HIQA may, but HIQA has not been given that role. Given what has happened, I ask the Taoiseach to consider that.

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