Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's reply. I reiterate that we were all appalled, shocked and disgusted by the emotional abuse and physical heavy-handedness we all witnessed on the RTE programme. I welcome the Minister's renewed commitment that registrations for new child care facilities will be in place in September.

It is obvious that the inspections of these facilities are inadequate considering that one of the crèches featured in the RTE exposé had passed inspection the previous month. In the committee meeting of 11 June, the Minister committed to a change in the inspections by September 2013.

Will that target be met and are there adequate numbers of public health nurses and inspectors available to carry out inspections? In the previous two years inspections were not carried out in a number of areas as a result of a lack of the necessary personnel. Has the position been rectified and have adequate numbers of the staff required to carry out inspections throughout the country been appointed?

At the committee meeting to which I refer, the Minister gave a commitment to amend the Child Care Act before the summer recess. As she may be aware, I brought forward a Child Care (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill last week. I hope she will consider the Bill which, if enacted, would lead to the imposition of punitive penalties on any child care facility which breaches the current regulations. Given that 48% of child care facilities breached the regulation relating to the adult-child ratio, does the Minister remain of the view that, even though she was advised against it, the decision to increase the adult-child ratio which applies to the ECCE scheme from 1:10 to 1:11 was correct?

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