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

As the registration period is three years, an inspection must have taken place within the period if one wishes to register again. That is part and parcel of the new regime.

We are appointing new inspectors so as to ensure there will be an inspector in every part of the country. Provision has been made in the budget for next year also for the recruitment of extra inspectors. New standards will replace the way services are currently judged. Clearer standards will shortly be outlined that will replace the current regulations. A range of factors will be covered.

In the United Kingdom, for example, inspections take place approximately every two years. The frequency of inspections varies from country to country. If a service is non-compliant, inspectors can visit it again within a given year. That is the reason the provision has been framed more broadly. As we develop the services, we can continue to examine what is an appropriate regime of inspection and how often visits should take place. Currently, it varies quite a bit from county to county. We need to build up services, put inspectors in place and have a national standard. All of that is happening. It was not the case previously, but that is the system we are moving towards. The reason we have included the phrase “from time to time” is that it allows for inspections as often as is required. I accept the point that we want to see more frequent inspections than has been the case in the past, but we wish to allow for inspectors to make visits more than once a year.

Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin made a good point, that if the amendment had specified that visits should take place “at least annually”, it would have made the amendment more acceptable. I will not accept the amendment today as drafted, but I accept the principle of regular inspections. We are working towards ensuring the resources are in place to allow regular inspections to happen. Inspections on their own will not improve the quality of child care services. It is about the training of staff and mandatory levels of training for those who work in the service. It is also about putting in place a mentoring system to support child care workers on the front line. We have a preschool quality agenda and are working towards achieving targets in that regard. Much work requires to be done to ensure all services reach the standards we want to see. We are putting inspection reports online. We now have almost 1,700 reports online. At least ten reports from recent weeks have gone online. Parents are now in a position to see precisely what is happening in the services and what inspectors are saying about their nursery or the early years service their child is attending. That is very helpful in raising standards.

Reference was made by Deputy Charlie McConalogue to the “Prime Time Investigates” programme which I accept generated concern. None of us liked what we saw on the programme and we need a range of initiatives to deal with what was raised in it.

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