I welcome the opportunity to raise this important matter on the Adjournment, namely, the monitoring and regulating of pre-school day care services in response to the disturbing report in The Sunday Tribune which revealed shocking facts about a significant number of Dublin crèches where physical abuse, negligence, lack of hygiene, understaffing and overcrowding have become the norm. I congratulate The Sunday Tribune on its investigation.
The article told of some appalling stories, including force feeding of infants; children left all day strapped into chairs around a table; bowls, cups, spoons and bottles being shared by a large number of small children; and crèches smelling strongly of vomit or urine as a result of soiled nappies left lying around. It is an appalling catalogue of abuse.
I ask the Minister of State to outline the monitoring or inspection procedures that have come into place since Part VII of the Child Care Act, 1991, which deals with the supervision of pre-school services, was implemented late last year. I congratulate the Minister of State on bringing the Child Care Act fully into operation.
Ireland has always been behind in the development of child care services, despite research evidence from this country and abroad which indicates that high quality pre-school education can play an important part in offsetting the effects of social disadvantage and in preventing school failure, a point made by the Minister for Education when introducing the Early Start pre-school service.
I take this opportunity to praise the many excellent services that have provided high quality care for children over many years. We have a responsibility, however, to support couples who try to combine work and family life. There has been an increase in the number of families where both parents work outside the home and who are trying to grapple with the difficulties of caring for their children.
As the number of women in the workforce rises, the challenge of finding adequate and affordable child care is growing. The importance of helping people to reconcile employment and family life must be recognised. Women cannot enjoy genuine equality of opportunity unless they have access to good quality day care services for their children. This is a support to family life, not the contrary. The pattern of family life has changed dramatically and we must support it by our policy actions. A part of supporting the family is supporting quality child care.
Irish and international research on child care indicates that the three most important hallmarks of quality care are accommodation and equipment, personnel qualifications and the adult: child ratio. Unfortunately, The Sunday Tribune article shows that some Irish crèches and pre-school services fail on all three counts. It tells of 13 babies in a room with one worker, many facilities with no natural light and crèches in the Dublin area using students on placement from courses as though they were fully qualified staff.
We clearly need a strong day care policy for children. We currently have a system of notification but perhaps a system of registration should now be considered, given this evidence. I would like the Minister to outline the system of monitoring currently in place for pre-school facilities by the health boards, the people involved in the monitoring. How highly qualified are they?
A policy to promote good standards of day care nationally must be developed as a matter of urgency, in other words, a guide to good practice in day care. Co-ordination and a national policy on pre-school day care is essential to ensure we have quality day care for our children. Day care is often a lifeline for parents and children and we must ensure it offers our children the very best that pre-school care can offer.
