Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 12 Nov 1998

Vol. 496 No. 5

Adjournment Debate. - Child Care Services.

Ms Fitzgerald

I am calling on the Government to put in place a national strategy to deal with the crisis in child care. There is a crisis in the provision of child care places at present. We need a child care plan, Structural Funds devoted to the issue, action on day care, action to encourage employers to support parents who are combining work and family life, initiatives to ensure we have proper training for those who are looking after children and initiatives to ensure there is proper monitoring of day care services that are developing.

The crisis concerns both the provision of places and the monitoring and inspection of day care places. This must be set against the background of a serious problem of child poverty. It is extraordinary that in this time of the Celtic tiger we have the second highest national rate of child poverty in the EU. Investing in our children should be a key priority. It has never been a top priority at a public policy level, despite a great deal of lip service to families and children.

The situation in relation to services for children at risk, as well as those thousands of children who need quality day care, is now at a crossroads. Ireland has among the highest child care costs as a proportion of average earnings in the EU. Average costs in Ireland are 20 per cent of average earnings, while in other European countries it is 8 per cent. Here parents pay a very high amount of their income in child care and they are not able to pay more.

A new factor emerging in Ireland is the huge growth in participation by women in the labour force. The female labour force is projected to grow by 218,000, an increase of 37 per cent, between now and 2011. There undoubtedly will be a dramatic increase in participation in the workforce by married women and mothers and it is absolutely clear that the demand for child care is going to increase dramatically, perhaps by 50 per cent.

Even without taking these figures into account there is an existing crisis in child care because the providers in the formal sector are not expanding despite ever increasing demands for places. There are quite a number of problems facing this sector which must be addressed urgently. There are difficulties in recruiting people to work in the sector, a shortage of places, particularly for very young children, very strict regulations which I welcome and a lack of part-time care available for parents. All this is putting huge pressure on the supply of child care services.

I ask the Minister to outline to the House the current situation regarding the monitoring and inspection procedures which operate under the Child Care Act, 1991 and the 1996 regulations which deal with the supervision of pre-school services. How many premises have been inspected since the regulations began to be enforced? What is the finding of those inspections and that monitoring? Will the Minister indicate to the House what action plan he intends to take to help this sector deal with the severe problems which it currently faces? It is very clear that high quality pre-school education can play a very important role in off-setting the effects of social disadvantage and in preventing school failure.

The vital importance in this country of reconciling employment and family life must be recognised. The pattern of family life has changed very dramatically. The Government must recognise this and take appropriate actions to deal with a changing situation. Part of supporting the family is supporting quality child care.

The child care issue is very complex and must take into account the needs of children, mothers who choose paid employment, those who stay at home, the needs of fathers and child care providers. Action is needed on all fronts.

I have spoken before on this matter and have alluded to the fact that international research has shown that the three most important hallmarks of quality care to children in day care facilities are accommodation and equipment, personnel qualifications and the adult-child ratio. There is a severe danger that, given the current shortages and the pressures on parents to find child care services, we will fail on all three of these in the services we supply. A policy to promote the highest standards of quality day care nationally must be developed as a matter of urgency.

Will the Minister indicate whether it is correct that up to half of registered pre-schools across the country still have not been inspected by regional health boards and that hundreds of other child care providers have also failed to register their centres and are ignoring the two year old Act? Nothing less is at stake than the physical and mental welfare of thousands upon thousands of children now and in the future.

I ask the Minister to respond to the issues I have raised as I believe there is a crisis in child care services. The march on Saturday is a very dramatic illustration of the crisis facing parents and providers.

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Dr. Moffatt)

I thank Deputy Fitzgerald for raising this important issue on the Adjournment. I am replying to the debate in the unavoidable absence of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Fahey.

Part VII of the Child Care Act, 1991, provides for the supervision and inspection by health boards of pre-school services. In 1998, a further £8 million revenue has been made available to strengthen child care services. This includes £500,000 for the continued implementation by the health boards of Part VII of the Child Care Act, 1991, in regard to pre-school services.

The Child Care (Pre-School Services) Regulations, 1996, which give effect to the provisions of Part VII, came into operation on 31 December 1996. The regulations apply to pre-schools, playgroups, day nurseries, cre ches, childminders looking after more than three children and other similar services which cater for children under six years of age.

The purpose of the regulations is to build on the existing good standards in our pre-school services and gradually improve standards throughout the sector to secure the health, safety and welfare of pre-school children and to promote the development of children attending pre-school services.

Under the regulations, pre-school providers are obliged to notify their local health board that they are carrying on or propose to carry on a pre-school service. On receipt of notification the health board will provide relevant information to the applicant and arrange for an inspection to be carried out by an authorised person. The explanatory guide to the regulations covering the requirements and procedures for notification and inspection states:

In view of the large numbers involved it is envisaged that health boards will have a two year period to complete the first inspection of pre-school services. On this basis all pre-school services should be inspected by mid-1999. Inspections will take place annually thereafter.

Pre-inspection teams are now in place in all health board areas and have started to inspect facilities on a phased basis. In general, inspections are carried out on a prioritised basis to ensure that areas of concern to members of the public, the voluntary sector and the professional staff of the health boards are dealt with. An inspection may take from two hours to two days. The activities of the inspection teams include providing information to parents, providers and other interested persons and agencies. It also involves advising the providers in relation to the requirements of the regulations to facilitate an overall improvement in the quality of child care services.

The latest information available from the health boards shows that more than 2,500 notifications have been received by the health boards and approximately one-third of the facilities concerned have been inspected to date.

A working group to monitor the implementation of Part VII of the Child Care Act, 1991, is in place. The group is representative of all the health boards and is concerned with ensuring a consistent approach to the implementation of the regulations. It is intended that the operation of the regulations will be reviewed after three years, with a view to effecting any changes considered necessary at that stage. As a first step in this process, the Minister of State, Deputy Fahy, recently initiated a review of the inspection process through the working group.

The Government is fully committed to expanding the availability of child care. In this regard, an expert group on child care has been established under Partnership 2000 to devise a national framework for the development of the child care sector. The group, which is chaired by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, is expected to finalise its report in December 1998.