Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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31. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will report on the progress of her Department, Pobal and the other relevant stakeholders in implementing a digitised and online system of recording and disseminating inspection reports on child care and preschool facilities; the level of engagement between her Department, Pobal, the Health Service Executive and other stakeholders such as the child care committees; and if she will indicate the current rate of inspections being undertaken. [6608/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The commitment to improve the quality of early childhood care and education for all children has been a key priority for me since becoming Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. My Department and I have been working on a comprehensive Pre-School Quality Agenda which aims to improve quality standards in pre-school services in Ireland. A key element of this Agenda is to strengthen the national pre-school inspection system.

Pre-school services that are required under the Child Care (Pre-School Services) (No 2) Regulations 2006 to notify their service to the Health Service Executive are subject to inspection by the Pre-School Inspectorate on a regular basis. The inspection reports were generally held by the Inspectorate in paper format and access to these reports has been an issue of concern to many parents seeking quality childcare for their children. The HSE did encourage services to share the reports with parents as preparation for the publication of the reports online was made.

In July 2013 the HSE commenced publication of retrospective pre-school inspection reports online and also new inspection reports as they were finalised. I understand that there are in the region of 2,500 pre-school inspection reports published online. The publication of new inspection reports will continue and the process of publishing the remaining retrospective reports is ongoing. Pobal is hosting the publication of the reports and they are available on the Pobal website.

Work on the establishment of the Child and Family Agency has provided an opportunity to address the absence of a coherent national approach to the regulation of childcare services, and the HSE Child and Family Services Division has been working towards developing the Pre-School Inspectorate as a nationally coordinated service. Standard Operating Procedures have been introduced to address issues of inconsistency and provide greater clarity for pre-school services. The Pre-School Inspectorate transferred from the HSE to the Child and Family Agency when it was established in January last and it will be a matter for the new Agency to decide how best to record and publish pre-school inspection reports. I am confident that the comprehensive reforms which are being introduced will provide for the operation by the Child and Family Agency of a more consistent and robust pre-school inspection regime.

In relation to the Deputy's question concerning the current rate of inspections being undertaken, I have referred this to the Agency for direct reply to the Deputy.