James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Deputy's concern, but I must repeat the point made in my response that "the early years inspectorate has inspected 1,659 services so far this year, an increase of 68% on the same period in 2014." Therefore, the system is well advanced in terms of inspections. Inspections have not stopped because the regulations have not been reviewed and the new ones have not been put in place.

The Deputy's question on the reason for the delay is very fair and I have asked it myself. The bottom line is that when the Child Care Act was amended, the Department decided to revise the child care regulations to take account of the new requirements in the registration of services and to bring the other regulations up to date. The 2006 child care regulations, rather than setting out definitive requirements in areas such as staff ratios and space, used the words "adequate" and "suitable". They were accompanied by an explanatory guide to the requirements that set out recommendations on how service providers should comply. In fact, the early years inspectorate has measured compliance against these recommendations.

Regarding delays, the problem has turned out to be much more complex than anticipated. The matter is with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel which is drafting the regulations. It obviously wants to be as careful as possible in the drafting and does not wish to have to revisit the matter any time soon. It wants to make sure it has them right. We are acting as a go-between between the drafter in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, to marry the two strands together in order that we can have the best outcome for children.

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