Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Significant progress has been made in implementing the national early years quality agenda, which involves a range of actions in key areas aimed at improving the quality of early years services and enhancing the regulatory regime. Additional funding of €4.5 million has been allocated in 2014 for this work. The quality agenda provides an overdue recognition of the importance of promoting quality in early years settings. By contrast, the predominant focus in earlier decades was on the number of places and facilities available. The Child and Family Agency Act 2013, which completed its passage through the House at the end of last year, made a number of amendments to the Child Care Act 1991. Regulations to give effect to the legislative changes are expected to be published later this month.

A new registration system, which will require child care services to register with the early years inspectorate in advance of opening, rather than simply notifying the inspectorate of their existence, will be placed on a statutory basis at that point. This will require the inspectorate to commence the assessment of the quality of a service before it opens. Inspectors will also be able to impose conditions on services. Failure to comply with these conditions could result in a process of de-registration. In the meantime, services are being registered on an administrative basis. All new services receive a pre-registration visit from the early years inspectorate. The drafting of the regulations required a new review of the draft national standards, the 2006 regulations and the associated guidance document, as well as an input from Tusla, which has to introduce new systems for implementing the new regulations. Legal advice has informed the approach taken. I expect all matters to be finalised soon to allow for the making of regulations this month.

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