Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 17 Nov 1998

Vol. 496 No. 6

Written Answers - Child Care Services.

Frances Fitzgerald

Question:

307 Ms Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Health and Children the progress, if any, made on the implementation of Part VII of the Child Care Act, 1991, in relation to regulations governing the safety and health standards in pre-school services; the number of facilities registered by health board area; the number outstanding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22409/98]

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Mr. 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, and the Child Care (Pre-School Services) Regulations, 1996, which give effect to the provisions of Part VII, in regard to pre-school services.

Under the regulations, pre-school providers are obliged to notify their local health board that they are carrying on or proposing 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. 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. The latest information provided to my Department by the health boards indicates that 2,624 notifications have been received nationally. A breakdown by indivdual health boards is set out below. Approximately one-third of these facilities have been inspected.

	EHB	MHB	MWHB	NEHB	NWHB	SEHB	SHB	WHB	Total
Notifications	853	146	267	236	157	326	426	213	2,624

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, I 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.