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

I support my colleague. This matter was debated at length on Committee Stage. It is regrettable that the Government is not taking the amendment on board.

The Minister puts forward an amendment to clearly and explicitly name occupational therapists. It is not unreasonable to suggest that the amount of work occupational therapists do with children is far less than the amount of work childminders do with children. Why does the Government fail to acknowledge a profession of people who work full time as childminders in their own homes? The Government refused to accept previous amendments tabled by my party in the Seanad and the Dáil that would have ensured that any person working as a childminder would have go through the vetting process. One would imagine that this would be only right and proper in the interests of the child and would protect the person minding the child.

Here we have an opportunity, as Deputy Ó Caoláin noted, to get this legislation right. We have waited for it for four and a half years. The Department has brought it forward here this evening at the end of the Dáil term and there is an opportunity to get it right. The Minister has explicitly outlined occupational therapists. In the interests of consistency, if nothing else, why is he not taking this amendment on board?

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