Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I would like to welcome the students. The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth who is present is responsible for many aspects of their lives.

The issue I am raising is to do with young children, specifically, the pre-school in the Morning Star National School, Ballyphenane, County Cork, and the fact the pre-school has not be reopened. I thank the Minister for being here. It is a testament to the importance of this issue that he is here. I accept it is not the Minister's direct responsibility, but Tusla's, as I will explain later. That the Minister is here is a credit to him and underscores the importance he attaches to the matter. I thank him for that most sincerely.

I have been contacted by the parents of 15 young boys and girls, aged between three and four, who are waiting to attend pre-school. As the Minister will know well, early childhood development is very important. This pre-school has been doing huge work in the area for young children. I have spoken to the parents and to Mary, the manager of the pre-school. To say they are frustrated is an understatement. A small cohort is affected. As I said, it is 15 students. However, it is 15 young children who, in some cases, have developmental needs in terms of early development that needs to be progressed. The issue has been ongoing with Tusla since April of this year. As the Minister knows, Tusla is required to make the decision.

What has made the whole matter frustrating and disconcerting is that the pre-school in the exact same room was open until mid-April of this year. Due to a change of management and a change in use of a room in another school, the existing pre-school in Morning Star National School had to change its modus operandi. Mary, the manager, used to be based in Glasheen, but that had to close as the room was required. The opportunity arose for this pre-school to continue in Morning Star National School.The person in charge is of high calibre, great competency and much experience. Many of the parents just cannot comprehend the frustration being experienced now with what seems to be bureaucracy by Tusla at one level. I know the Minister is aware of the situation. I will describe the situation encountered by a parent whom I will not name. This person said they were concerned for their child's well-being and his mental health and understands, as a primary schoolteacher, the importance of school for his development. The communication continued by saying this person's son also has a speech and language delay, that he had made great progress since he had started preschool last year and that it is vital he returns to the school as soon as possible so he does not regress. This is the core of this issue. It is about progression and not regression.

I have spoken to many parents who have come to talk to me about this issue, and I thank them. It is hard to come by places in preschools. There had been an issue in this case with fire safety, health and safety risk assessment and planning permission. All those requirements have now been fulfilled and complied with by the management. Therefore, I hope we can see progress. Tusla is well aware of this matter and the issues with the building and the fire safety certificate. I believe there is an exemption from planning permission, an engineer visited the building to undertake a risk assessment, the fire brigade found adequate fire certification and fire exits are in situ.

This is a one-room classroom. There has been no change of use and it has a planning permission exemption from the city council. I have spoken to people in City Hall about this issue. The start date has been pushed back. We are in the first week of October and there is an urgent need to expedite this matter. I again thank the Minister for being here and I appreciate his genuine interest. I am speaking on behalf of the parents and the young boys and girls they are advocating for. I am also advocating for them in this important matter. I hope we can see this situation resolved for the sake of the young people themselves.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I welcome our guests in the Public Gallery as well and I hope they find their trip to the Oireachtas very interesting. I thank Senator Buttimer for raising this important issue, for advocating on behalf of the parents of the children attending the Morning Star preschool, and for emphasising the importance of this early education for those children as well as the support it provides for their parents.

Tusla is an independent statutory regulator for the sector. It is wholly responsible for the registration of all early learning and care and school-age childcare services. Approximately 4,000 early learning and care services and 2,200 school-age childcare services are registered with and inspected by Tusla. While my Department is responsible for the legislation governing the sector and we do work closely with Tusla, obviously the implementation of the regulations is solely a matter for Tusla. I am also restricted from intervening in specific cases.

It is a legal requirement under the Child Care Act 1991 regulations for those proposing to open an early years service to submit an application for registration with Tusla at least three months before it is proposed to commence operations. This is to allow sufficient time for the processing and approval of such applications, in line with the relevant statutory requirements. It is the responsibility of the providers of early years services to ensure they have all the documentation required in place, including fire certificates and planning compliance documents. Providers should also ensure they are ready for Tusla's fit-for-purpose inspection, if required. Registration of early years services can be granted only where Tusla is satisfied that the premises, operation and location of the services pose no unmanaged risk to children. We can all understand why those regulations need to be adhered to.

Tusla cannot process applications that do not contain all the required documents, but it does inform providers who submit incomplete applications of any missing documents. The service then has an extra ten days to submit any outstanding documents. If it is not possible to provide the documentation sought in that timeframe, the application is closed. Open applications that are not being updated by providers are a drain on the resources of the early years inspectorate registration team, and this is made clear to all services seeking to apply for registration with Tusla. Therefore, although the onus does rest with prospective service providers to ensure their applications for registration are fully completed on submission, the inspectorate does work closely with applicants to help new services to open as soon as possible and to allow existing services to grow their capacity. The requirements and associated timelines for the processing of new registrations to ensure opening by September 2022 have been clearly communicated to the sector. In the interests of having a fair and transparent policy, therefore, Tusla will only review applications in the order they are received. This is in line with the organisation's registration policy.

My understanding of this case from Tusla is that some documentation was missing when the original application was submitted in August. Some of those documents remain outstanding. A revised application for registration was received on 30 September, however, and that is now being progressed based on Tusla's registration process. Therefore, it is important to say the application is now in train. It is hoped all relevant documents will now have been submitted. I suggest, though, that the management of the preschool double-check with the Tusla inspectorate and the city and county childcare committee in Cork that all those documents have been received to ensure there is no delay in this application being addressed and that it can be processed. It is to be hoped we will soon be able to see this facility for young people in the area reopened for them to resume their ECCE programme.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for being here and for his response. I accept there was an ongoing issue with some of the documentation. My understanding, however, is that all this has now been rectified. Issues were addressed in respect of fire safety and planning and all the requisite documents were submitted. From talking to the people involved, I believe all these aspects were addressed. I welcome the Minister's reply. Notwithstanding that, however, I ask if the application could be backdated to when it was originally submitted rather than having the clock starting at the end of September. This would help to expedite the situation.

As the Minister said, though, it is important there is engagement with Tusla. I appreciate this. There is a great need for this to happen. I will talk again to the people involved to ensure all the relevant documentation has been submitted and that there is clarity in this regard. The important point here is that I hope Tusla will expedite this matter. I say this because I think it is a bit unfair to the 15 students and their families that we have a situation where there is now a lacuna in the provision of these education services, when the documentation clearly illustrates there are no health and safety issues and no planning permission is required. I again thank the Minister wholeheartedly for his reply.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As Senator Buttimer said, it would appear we now have a full application containing all relevant documentation. This is important and will allow for the application to be processed. Tusla is aware of the need to work expeditiously to ensure applications are processed, and the agency understands children will not be able to access education until this is done. Tusla's early years inspectorate is all about providing for the best form of education.

Additionally, that we are also now beyond the late summer period when the inspectorate was dealing with a great many registrations will mean it will now have the scope to focus on this application and to get it done. It is, however, important there is engagement in this regard and that it is clarified that all documents have been provided. Once that is the case, this application can be processed as expeditiously as possible.