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

Part 7(a) of the Child Care Act was amended by section 92 of the Child and Family Agency Act 2013. Under that Act, all service providers notified to the HSE prior to the commencement of the Act were deemed registered for a period of three years. Under the Act, the agency may attach conditions to a registration, or remove a provider from the register. The agency may choose to do this where it is satisfied that the provider is non-compliant with the regulations. When the agency proposes to do this, it must notify the provider in writing of its proposals to do so and the reasons for it. The provider may then make representations to the agency or appeal to the District Court. The agency may also prosecute a provider for contravening the regulations and, on conviction, the provider will be subject to a class A fine. The Act refers to regulations made under this part, and the delay in the preparation of revised regulations means that a substantive registration system has not yet been commenced by the agency. However, the Department's legal advice is that the existing child care regulations of 2006 continue to apply.

The Deputy's question vis-à-visan appeals process is something that has not come to my notice up to this moment in terms of a structure being requested. However, it is something that I will look at, because there needs to be a right of appeal on both sides. I will finish by emphasising that the role of governance is to help providers and services provide a safe service, and in most instances, following interventions, practices change and services improve. The goal is to continue to have a safe service for children. However, in cases in which people are recalcitrant and refuse to come on board with a more modern, proper and safe approach, we have the sanctions in place to deal with them.

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