Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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As 11 Members have raised this issue with the Ceann Comhairle, namely, Deputies Peter Mathews, Simon Harris, Derek Keating, Robert Troy, Mary Lou McDonald, Ciara Conway, Alan Farrell, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Róisín Shortall, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and John Lyons, there will be just one and a half minutes available for each Deputy. Consequently, I ask for their co-operation. The Minister will then have four minutes, after which there will be a further 30 seconds for a supplementary question. I call on Deputy Mathews.

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The fact that 11 Deputies have sought to highlight the alarm that has been raised nationwide on this issue speaks for itself. It is appalling that the most vulnerable citizens were subject to the type of treatment, neglect, bullying, harassment and downright punishment imposed that occurred in a couple of those crèches and which was shown on "Prime Time" last night.

I want this issue to be put at the top of the Minister's agenda. I understand three of those crèches are located in the constituency I represent. I am appalled to think that the children were so treated and that their parents have been put under the stress of being misled in terms of what was supposed to be a crèche that looked after these children.

The Minister should understand that it is not good enough to refer to the HSE inspection report which stated that 75% of child care facilities were in breach of regulations last year. Seventy-five per cent of what? Half the crèches breached regulations on adult-child ratios and staff background checks. That is not good enough. Sine 40% failed to provide a safe environment for children. That is unacceptable. One of the crèches received over €1 million from the State last year. That is appalling. I want a root and branch investigation to find out what went wrong. I want to know the numbers of children in the crèches, the number of crèches in the country, the private ones in particular. I believe they get notice about inspections, which they should not do because the others do not; they can arrive on the spot.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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This is a rapid fire round. Parents in my constituency of Wicklow, and parents throughout the country, are upset, worried, disturbed and shocked at what they witnessed in last night's "Prime Time" programme into what the Minister correctly described this morning on national radio as incidents of emotional abuse in some crèches, including one in my county. It is widely accepted that the Minister is a reforming Minister; that is widely acknowledged by all stakeholders. In past years this country invested in bricks and mortar, but not in standards and quality. That is what we now must do.

I want to put a number of questions on the record of the House. When will we see the publication of the much-needed Children First legislation? Can parents currently access inspectors' reports into crèches? When will these reports be available on-line similar to the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, reports? Is the Minister planning on recruiting more inspectors? Is she satisfied with the standards of inspectors? Can she confirm if a Garda investigation is under way, and what is the status of that? Will people who were involved in incidents face punishment? What advice would the Minister give to parents in Wicklow and throughout the country who had to drop off their children at crèches this morning, will collect them this evening and are now worried sick after the incidents that "Prime Time" correctly exposed?

Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Since last night many words have been used to describe the distressing and disturbing events we witnessed in the "Prime Time" programme but there is only one word we should use - abuse. Last night, we saw further evidence of children being abused in Ireland. We saw babies being thrown onto mattresses, babies being shouted at, babies blackmailed, babies being bullied and threatened. We even saw a case where a baby was left in a room alone as punishment: punishment for a little baby.

It is understood that up to 25% of staff do not have adequate qualifications or training in early child care services, and up to 50% of staff are not adequately supervised or do not have continuous professional development courses available to them. I would be appreciative of the Minister's response on that.

The Taoiseach said today that the Government's response to this issue would not involve the ticking of boxes. Will the Minister give us her opinion and that of the Government on mandatory reporting of abuse?

Last night, Professor Hayes stated that quality in child care depends on staff. What new measures are needed to be put in place to ensure that the correct type of people are employed in early child care services?

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Last night, people were shocked, horrified and traumatised having witnessed cruelty, emotional abuse, physical heavy-handedness, and a blatant abuse of parents' trust. There was a clear failure to deliver professional care and high standards for children in early child care settings. We cannot have a quality service without a quality workforce.

In terms of what needs to be done, the Health Service Executive must immediately establish a helpline for parents; provide additional inspectors where gaps currently exist; publicise inspection reports; and publish the two critical items of legislation.

This crisis provides the Minister with an opportunity to secure the much-needed additional resources from her Cabinet colleagues to ensure full implementation of Síolta, Aistear and the workforce development plan.

I ask the Minister for a definite timeframe for the publication of the Children First guidelines and the setting up of the Child and Family Support Agency. Can we have a timeframe for the implementation of the workforce development plan? Will she consider the possibility of introducing CCTV cameras, where parents are agreeable? Will she withdraw State funding for facilities found guilty of breaches and replace the model of inspection of compliance with a model focused on outcomes for our children?

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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As shocked as people were watching last night's programme, we all understand that these are some of the consequences for society when caring roles are relegated to second class. I am sorry to say that in many of the decisions taken by the Minister's Government, that trend of undervaluing carers and carers' work has continued. The programme clearly illustrated huge deficiencies in respect of not just the qualification of staff but the suitability of some staff in these crèches. They include issues around regulation and inspection. These issues must be addressed as a matter of urgency, and no State funding should go to any facility that is not properly inspected, regulated and with suitable and suitably qualified staff.

The second issue that arose from last night's programme is one of child welfare. As other speakers stated, what we witnessed was bullying and brutalisation of very young children. When will the Children First guidelines be put on a statutory basis to oblige the responsible and professional people working in this sector to report any misconduct of this nature?

Are the crèches that were exposed on last night's programme still open today? Did they take children into their care today? If the answer to that question is "Yes", in the name of all goodness how could that be the case?

Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour)
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This is not the first time I have raised the issue of the provision of quality child care places with the Minister because what she has been faced with is a legacy of an approach by previous Governments where child care was merely a tax incentive for builders to provide crèches, and no more than that. Child care places were seen as no more than a labour activation measure for women. What is evident in the damning, distressing footage we saw last night is that nowhere in the provision of care were the needs of children being met.

I ask the Minister to ensure, after the horrendous footage we saw last night in the crèches, that funding must be linked to quality. I am not talking about infrastructure or access to the best, new and brightest toys. I am talking about the warmth of the relationship between the care giver and the child because that is what counts. That is what will achieve the best outcome and impact on the provision of child care for children. It is not just a labour activation measure for women to return to work. It is about the provision of quality, inclusive, holistic child care for our children.

Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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How do I summarise in 90 seconds what we all witnessed last night? It is near impossible, but what we witnessed on the video footage was a fundamental breach of trust in terms of the most vulnerable people in our society by those turning a profit. The individuals responsible, and all child care professionals, should be in this area because it is a calling, they have a basic love of children, and they want to nurture and educate those children for the many hundreds of thousands of parents who are unable to do so for a short period every day.

Qualification should be mandatory for every individual who works in a crèche or child-minding facility, and those individuals should be thoroughly vetted and monitored on an ongoing basis because parents must have confidence in them. Some Deputies mentioned the crèches still operating today. Parents must have confidence in those facilities in terms of the care of their children.

If they cannot have that confidence, something is wrong with the system we oversee. All of this must be related in some way to the ongoing funding of such facilities. If we are funding them as a State, even though they are clearly in breach of the guidelines issued by the HSE, the funding must be stopped to ensure they adhere to those standards.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The RTE investigation into child care facilities, "A Breach of Trust", is clearly the talk of Ireland today. Parents with children in child care are extremely worried and they are looking to the Dáil for assurance the practices seen on our screens last night cannot be tolerated. Will the Minister give such an assurance today? Strapping toddlers to chairs for hours on end, shouting in their faces, tossing them about like rag dolls, forcing them down on mattresses with blankets over their heads and locking them alone in rooms are appalling practices.

A review and reform of regulations with legislative change is clearly necessary. State funding for child care should be more closely tied to strict adherence to regulations. I want to lay emphasis on that. It is absolutely essential. There must be a fundamental review of the policy of dependence on the private for-profit sector. The training and pay of child care staff must also be addressed.

I have questioned the Minister on these issues during the current Dáil and she has spoken of new strategies, programmes and plans. They are all very well but without funding commitments, they will be meaningless. We are prepared to work on a cross-party basis to advance these issues, as we have demonstrated time after time. The new child and family support agency will take a lead role but it must be properly funded and equipped to do so. What can the Minister guarantee in the interim pending the establishment of the new agency?

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent)
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We have always known the first five years are the most important in a person's life. It is the time when the future emotional, social and educational well-being is laid down. It is, however, the area that receives the least support and investment and for which there is the least political responsibility. That has been the case with successive Governments and, unfortunately, it appears it is still the case.

During the boom, the expansion of child care services was largely determined by the needs of the labour market. It became a numbers game and the welfare and best interests of children were secondary. The State can no longer afford to abdicate its responsibility in this area. While I do not question the personal commitment of the Minister to this area, it is simply not good enough to say the new agency will take responsibility for all of this. When will we ever see this new agency?

Action is needed now and we cannot afford to delay this any further. Four things must happen immediately: registration and not just notification should be mandatory, an inspection service must be provided in every county, all inspection reports must be put up online and State support must be conditional on meeting minimum standards in respect of ratios and qualifications. Where they are not met, State funding must be withdrawn and the facilities closed. We cannot afford to allow our children to be abused in the manner we saw last night any longer. Action must be taken.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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I do not want this controversy to distract the Minister from her intention of providing a second year of free child care in the next budget. We must examine the entire model, however, because effectively we are funding private companies to deliver a public service. Does the Minister not think it is time for the Department of Education and Skills to have a central role in this to roll out the Aistear and the Síolta programmes?

What we saw last night just would not happen in a primary school, as I know from being a primary school teacher and principal, because of the management structures that are in place. The parents who send their children to these centres want to know what will happen to the centres their children have been in where the incidents took place. Do they have a future and will they continue to receive State funding? Most people in the House would question whether the State should be funding such companies.

I do not want to wait for another RTE investigative programme to have a hidden camera in a direct provision centre in Ireland. If we are outraged about this situation in child care provision, as we should be, there are direct provision centres in this country that are also abusing children. We must not just look at the issues raised thanks to the RTE programme last night, but at the provision of State care for children across the State.

John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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I will preface my remarks by saying there are many crèches today that are carrying out exemplary professional work with children. I worked as a secondary school teacher and if someone reported that a teacher had tied up a student or put a student into a room with a blanket over him, we would be gobsmacked. We put up with this for long enough in our nursing homes but it is not acceptable and tolerated any longer. It was never tolerated in our secondary and primary schools and it should never be tolerated in our preschools. Can the Minister give an assurance there will be an increase in inspections, that unannounced inspections will be introduced and that any staff shortcomings will be addressed? Will the Minister withdraw public funding from child care providers if they are found to be in breach of HSE regulations? Public money should be withdrawn from crèches that fail the children in their care. Regulations and standards must be enforced if they are to be taken seriously and the public have the right to be able to have faith in the system.

The Minister said on "Morning Ireland" today that inspection reports would be available online. Will that be new inspection reports or will that include inspection reports form the past?

This has been a watershed moment in our thinking on child care and early years education in Ireland. We must focus less on the profits of companies and more on the educational and developmental needs of our children.

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank colleagues from all sides of the House who raised this important topic, the care of our children under five years of age and the services they attend. It is the first time we have had such a focused debate on this age group and that speaks for itself.

Obviously, I regret what has precipitated this debate. I agree with what my colleagues had to say about the scenes we all saw last night. The images were harrowing, distressing, shocking and absolutely unacceptable. We saw poor practice and the dereliction of duty and care resulting in the mistreatment of young children that bordered on abuse. It was extremely distressing to watch. I concur with the comments made. It is striking that when our children begin in primary school at five years of age, the inspection regime, the curriculum, focus, teacher and mentor support are all in place to a much greater degree than is the case in this sector. It has happened in other countries but it has not happened here and that is the task that faces us. Those are the issues we must address.

I will try to respond to as many comments as possible. The Child Care (Pre-School Services) Regulations 2006 are the basis on which the HSE carries out preschool inspections. Clearly, the incidents shown last night would appear to constitute serious breaches of those very regulations. We need stronger and more robust inspections which take account of quality to a far greater degree than the current regime and we need stronger sanctions. I certainly concur with the points made on that. If we take the current regulations, such as regulation 5 on the care and development of young children, and regulation 9 on managing the behaviour of young children in these centres, we can see they were not adhered to as intended.

That goes without saying.

As Members probably will be aware, the practices witnessed and the centres that were the subject of the programme are also the subject of a thorough and comprehensive investigation under way by both the Garda and the HSE. All such instances of mistreatment of children in child-care settings should be reported to authorities. It does not need statutory reporting. That is essential and necessary under the current guidelines but, obviously, obligatory reporting strengthens that provision. Clearly, under the current guidelines, any instances of abuse of children or instances bordering on abuse of children where there are concerns should be reported.

It should be noted that the children in last night's report appeared to be younger than the preschool cohort and in that programme there is no evidence of poor practice in relation to that cohort. Last night's report would obviously make us extremely sensitive to examining and investigating continuously what precisely happens during the course of the early childhood care and education, ECCE scheme.

I alert Deputies to the fact that Pobal investigates the ECCE scheme on a yearly basis and we have an annual report since we began that only last year. We now have a cohort of information about compliance across the sector. There are some statistics I will share with Deputies. The issue of qualifications has been raised a good deal. For the first time ever, as I stated, last year we collected information on this cohort. For example, the number of staff qualified at FETAC level has risen, from 70% in 2010 to 86.5% in 2012, and 86.5% of staff are now qualified up to level 5 in these settings. That is important information. We have demanded higher standards in training for the leaders in the ECCE programmes, and 98% of those have level 5 or above. There is continuous improvement but there is no room for complacency.

Some Deputies raised the issue of mandatory qualifications. For the new contracts and new regulations in September, I am examining increasing the level of qualification which ought to be in place for staff who are employed within the sector.

The matters addressed in last night's programme deserve and demand a comprehensive response. We should discuss them at greater length on another occasion in order that we can comprehensively discuss the range of issues that have been raised on this occasion under the Topical Issues debate format.

Parents need to be reassured that their young children, whether in child care services, crèche or wherever, are protected and cared for. As a number of Deputies stated, there are many examples of high quality practice in this country. We do not want to create panic in every parent in the country about the standard of services which are being provided for their children, but we need to be vigilant. Parents themselves are vigilant. Parents are not powerless in this situation. As some Deputies suggested, we want to encourage parents. What parents should do is go to their providers and ask questions if they are concerned. They should ask to see inspection reports, which are available. New inspection reports will be available online in a number of weeks. On the inspection reports already done, there was a substantial piece of work in providing those as well. Something we need to do which has not been done to date is to analyse all the reports. We need to see the messages from the inspection reports from around the country.

The HSE has informed me that there will be a website available shortly outlining what prosecutions have taken place so that parents will have access to that information. Today, I spoke to Mr. Gordon Jeyes about bringing the findings together and analysing them by sector - private sector, not-for-profit sector, community sector - to see what we can learn from the inspection reports that have been done. Deputies will be surprised to hear that, like many issues in relation to children in this country, we did not have these national data. We do not have a national approach to inspections. I have asked Mr. Jeyes to ensure we adopt that national approach. That will ensure inspection staff can be redeployed in a flexible manner to deal with some of the gaps, and a number of inspectors are being recruited.

There were quite a number of other issues raised which I will not have the opportunity to respond to right now, but perhaps I will have an opportunity when I respond after the Deputies have spoken.

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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On the child care preschool services regulations, which are the foundation on which everything is done, there should be national statistics and national inspection reports. That should be a priority. The Minister should get that moving fast. As Deputy Shortall stated, we want action, not words. We also want immediate emergency teams to get into the crèches that failed on inspections and were in any way deficient. The Minister should get qualified paediatric nurses in there to see that the standards of care are correct. The Minister stated, for instance, that it bordered on abuse. It did not border on abuse; it was abuse. It was bullying. One should call it what it is.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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If ever the limitations of this House were to be seen, this is it where one has 30 seconds to speak about a major issue.

Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour)
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Hear, hear.

John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Absolutely.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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It is pathetic. It is not the Minister's fault. I am pleased that there is a thorough Garda investigation. I would ask the Minister to give consideration to the use of the Health Information and Quality Authority. HIQA is carrying out inspections of nursing homes. It will start carrying out inspections in residential homes for persons with disabilities. It is the independent regulator. It merits consideration.

We also need to look at the issues of childminding in the home. This is the next issue that could come down the tracks if we do not. It has been addressed in the North and in Scotland. It merits consideration in this jurisdiction.

It is about empowering parents. The Minister is quite correct. I very much welcome the fact these inspection reports will go online shortly.

Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister. I would like to have more time to spend discussing some of the finer points of the Minister's report, but in the time available I will confine myself to three points only. One, I raised the issue of abuse and the Minister responded by stating that it bordered on abuse. When children and babies are treated in the way they were treated as shown in the programme last night, I respectfully say that is not bordering on abuse. There is clear evidence of abuse of children. Two, in response to my question on mandatory reporting, the Minister stated that issues like this should be reported. I have stated previously in this House, and I ask the Minister to take this to the Government, that it is my firm and honest opinion, especially after last night's programme, that we must have mandatory reporting on abuse. Three, can the Minister tell us the number of service providers which receive State funding that have never been inspected?

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Can the Minister ensure at the earliest possible opportunity that the Government will make adequate time available for a proper debate on this? Can she confirm whether the HSE has established a helpline to deal with this and whether she will look at the possibility, with parental support, of installing CCTV in child care settings? Can she give us a definitive timeframe for when the children first Bill and child and family support agency Bill will be before the House, and that the children first Bill will deal with childminders?

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I agree with the Minister that the last thing one would want to cause is widespread panic because my children, like those of many others, have had very positive experiences in crèches.

I am gobsmacked at the fact that crèches which clearly have broken the current HSE guidelines and into which there is a Garda and a HSE investigation under way would still be open today. If the Minister wants to give confidence to parents and to stem any panic, she must prove categorically that where abuses and breaches of regulations occur, even before she introduces the reforms of which she speaks, firm action will be taken. Can she explain to us how, in light of all of this evidence, these crèches are still functioning?

The issue of child care in the home was raised. That is a significant point. Why did the Minister cut the childminding advisory posts? There were only a limited number of them across the State. They offered a network, support and training for individuals who care for children in their own homes. It was a bad decision and it might be one that comes back to haunt us.

Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour)
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We should not cause panic among parents and as a parent of a young child I understand how much we rely on child care. I contacted my local crèche this morning in Dungarvan just to say I was thinking of the workers there. It has been a very difficult day for them, and these people are very committed to their job and giving care and attention to children on a daily basis. Most in the House would probably agree with that statement.

The Minister spoke about Pobal analysing the results of the community employment schemes around the country. Anybody with experience of services funded by Pobal would say that its reports always focus on numbers but we must move away from them if we are to speak about quality child care provision. It is not just about numbers, how many new pieces of equipment have been bought or how many children attended a service but rather what the child and the carer do in the service which has the biggest impact. It is unfortunate that it took this investigation to bring the matter to the fore. I am not sure the inspections as they stand would have outed the sort of poor practice we saw last night, which is really scary. We must focus on that and I know the Minister is really committed to the area. I hope to continue working with her to ensure we can bring improvements to fruition.

Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for her response. The point just made by Deputy Conway is true and it may be the case that inspections may not have picked up the problems we saw last night. That is all the more reason for us to get the Children First Bill published, as it is crucial at this point. Deputy Harris indicated we must empower parents so they can have confidence in the child care service providers they use and we must ensure that the response of the Minister, the Government and the House adequately provides such empowerment.

With regard to enforcement of regulations, where a child care provider fails the HSE child care standards from 2006, it should be closed and funding should be stopped. It is an occasion where the Minister needs a big stick because if something like this recurs, it would be disgraceful.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The issue of child care standards must be examined in the round. I bring to the Minister's attention that there are 35 child care positions advertised on the JobBridge website today. These are internships so we must ask how appropriate these are. I have no problem with such placements but they should be made in addition to full staffing levels and not instead of properly trained staff, as I suspect they are so often.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent)
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Last night we got a glimpse of a sample of the for-profit sector and it is entirely unacceptable that corners are being cut and children are paying the price while some of the companies involved are returning substantial profits. In the community sector the reality is the Government is cutting funding for child care facilities. We are all familiar with the fact that so many of those facilities in our constituencies are struggling to survive and the funding arrangement makes little or no provision for management or supervision of those services, which are being cut to the bone.

The Minister cannot get quality on the cheap and she should not expect parents to police these matters. Parents have a right to expect that where facilities are being provided for our most vulnerable and where State funding is forthcoming, the State should be playing its part in ensuring that quality is there. That is clearly not happening and action must be taken in the area. The Government must take its responsibility seriously.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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I thank the Minister for her reply and I know her commitment to the area is unquestioned. In her reply she indicated that none of the children depicted in last night's programme would have been in receipt of the free preschool year as they were too young. If we are to convince the Irish people that we need a second free preschool year, we will have to deal with younger children and we must be able to ensure Irish people will have confidence in the system and that the second preschool year will be worthy of taxpayers' investment.

I would like the Minister to respond to my question about direct provision centres as the issue is connected to how we deal with children under the care of private providers funded by the State and those funded directly by the State. The Minister knows that direct provision centres are dealing with children who are not being adequately cared for. We all know about this so we cannot let the opportunity go by without addressing that issue. As others have said today, we need a fuller debate at an early stage to flesh out these issues in a more prolonged debate.

John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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At the nub of the debate is the idea that when every parent who loves his or her child leaves that child to the door of an institution, he or she wants the child to be safe and cared for. That is all we ask for. We know the Minister has the commitment, as became clear with her response. I am sure anybody listening shares my wish that when a child goes to a crèche or any institution like a crèche, the child's educational and developmental needs should be met. Above all, they should be safe and cared for.

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank colleagues for raising the range of issues. The question is whether a more robust inspection system would have found the problems instanced last night. The international evidence is that if there is an inspection system which engages in a positive way with providers, working with them to improve standards and which collaborates over time, there is a higher chance that the kinds of scenes we saw last night would be avoided or uncovered through an inspection system. Nevertheless, it would not be guaranteed, and there is a range of other issues that must be addressed in order to provide the safe environment about which Deputy Lyons has spoken. That would encompass dealing with issues.

A certain focus has not been evident historically, and there are large legacy issues in the area that we will not be able to address overnight. Nevertheless, I should be clear that they will be addressed. I have stated that what I saw last night was emotional abuse and there is no question about that, as children's developmental needs were ignored and responses were inappropriate in many instances. There is a big job to be done.

There are many excellent community crèches and child care services where parents are receiving a high quality service. We also have good private facilities. Nevertheless, we must have a robust inspection system and deal with the issues raised by many Deputies, including sanctions, compliance and consequences like prosecutions. All those elements must be addressed. At times, this may not be the way we want to go as we want to primarily provide a high-quality service but all the elements must be addressed.

In April this year there was a total of 270 community child care schemes and every Deputy in the House knows about the quality in many of those community services. There is still work to be done with qualifications and access-----

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent)
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There are problems in many of them.

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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There is a range of issues and the work has been ongoing. Last night's programme threw a sharp focus on the issues but there are initiatives under way at present. I reassure Deputies and parents that these are working towards registering all child care facilities. It is unbelievable that in this country we have allowed people to open child care facilities by simply notifying the HSE. That cannot go on and it will stop. It is the legacy and what we have allowed to happen in the sector. The responsibility for that would encompass the approach to children in a very general way.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent)
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The responsibility lies with the Minister.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has been in power for two and a half years. Will the Minister answer the questions we put?

Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour)
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The Minister is over her time.

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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We are clearly working towards a more comprehensive and broadly based inspection regime. Unlike the previous Government, this Government will bring in mandatory reporting and has already had consultation. It was not done in 14 years despite promises by previous taoisigh.

To answer the question on the child and family agency, in a few weeks we will have legislation in the House to establish the new child and family agency, which is the most radical reform the area of child protection and child care services has seen in decades. This is under way at present. The legislation will be in the House and will go to Government in a number of weeks. This will mean we will have a dedicated focus for the first time on these issues with dedicated management throughout the system. We have not had this in the HSE. This dedicated focus will ensure we have higher standards and this is extremely important.

A number of Deputies raised the question of child minding. Every day parents take decisions and a total of 70% of children in the country are looked after by private childminders. This is the decision parents take. They make decisions about the quality of this care and take the decision these childminders will mind their children. There is no regulation in this area. In other countries there is such regulation. This is an issue which may well be on the agenda in the near future also.