Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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1181. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide an update on the report of the public consultation of the Tusla Early Years Inspectorate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16337/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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A public consultation on the review of the Regulations governing early learning and care took place between March and October 2022. This review primarily focused on enforcement powers of the Tusla Early Years Inspectorate, the independent statutory regulator for the sector. However, my Department also took the opportunity to undertake a wider but limited examination of lessons learned from the implementation of the Regulations since 2016.

Phase 1 of the public consultation included a call for submissions and a questionnaire with all participants being invited to participate in Phase 2 of the consultation. Phase 2 comprised of five focus groups to further develop the key issues that were identified following the detailed analysis of Phase 1 results.

The independent report on the consultation has been published and is available online at www.gov.ie/consultations.