Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

During 2013, I have prioritised implementation of a preschool quality agenda. This represents a long overdue and long-awaited programme of measures to support, monitor and regulate the improvement of quality standards in preschool services in Ireland. For the first time I have ensured that preschool inspection reports are now online. There are 1,672 reports online, including the most recent 12 reports on inspections that have been conducted on preschool services in recent weeks.

A key element of the preschool quality agenda has been strengthening the national preschool inspection system. The HSE has statutory responsibility for preschool inspections and there are currently 38 whole-time equivalent preschool inspectors in post. I wish to advise the Deputy that the HSE is at an advanced stage of recruiting five additional inspectors to strengthen preschool inspection in Louth, Dublin south-east Wicklow, where two will be recruited, Cavan-Monaghan and Sligo-Leitrim-west Cavan. These are areas where gaps were identified.

On foot of budget 2014, I will also be allocating €4.5 million in Exchequer funding to support the implementation of the preschool quality agenda, with €500,000 of this funding to be allocated next year towards the cost of further increasing staffing levels to strengthen the preschool inspection system. This will be augmented by additional funding from the annual registration fees payable by preschool services, to be introduced as part of statutory registration. The number of additional inspectors to be recruited to the inspectorate as a result of this extra funding and the location of those posts will be decided upon by the new child and family agency in consultation with the Department.

The recruitment of additional inspectors is only one element of the reform of preschool inspections. Management reforms are under way and the new agency will be established next year. These include a programme of work to strengthen the preschool inspectorate to ensure greater consistency nationwide. As I have often stated, there has not been a national plan for the inspection of preschool services up to this point.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

A practical outcome of this work has been the introduction of standard operating procedures earlier this year, which should address the issue of inconsistencies and provide clarity and transparency to early years services. The comprehensive preschool quality agenda, which my Department is progressing, will also address other key preschool inspection reforms, including publishing inspection reports online, strengthening the national inspection system, introducing new protocols on regulatory compliance and enforcement, increasing and widening the sanctions that can be taken for non-compliance, introducing a registration system for all preschool services and implementing new national quality standards.

The legislative provisions to underpin these reforms are contained in the Child and Family Agency Establishment Bill 2013. This legislation will provide a statutory basis for registration of preschool services and will introduce a range of new enforcement powers for inspectors at pre-prosecution level. Under the proposed new system, all preschool services will have to be registered in order to operate. Inspectors will be empowered to specify improvement conditions that a service must comply with and the threat of removal of registration will be available. Currently, 1,679 preschool inspection reports are published online.

The new national quality standards for preschool services will be launched shortly. These will complement the existing preschool regulations replacing previous explanatory notes and will set out the quality outcomes and supporting criteria against which inspection under the regulations will be measured. I am confident that these comprehensive reforms will provide for the operation by the child and family agency of a more consistent and robust preschool inspection regime.

See this speech in context