Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 February 2014
549. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she is satisfied with the adequacy of inspections and the standard of child care provided throughout the State; if follow-up inspections and sanctions were imposed on those who have been found to be in breach of the relevant regulations and guidelines during the past year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6380/14]
View answerThe 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. During 2013, I prioritised the implementation of a Pre-School Quality Agenda, which represented a long-awaited programme of measures to support, monitor and regulate the improvement of quality standards in pre-school services in Ireland. A key element of this Agenda is to strengthen the national pre-school inspection system.
My Department is working with the Early Years Inspectorate to develop the new protocols on regulatory compliance so that there is greater clarity and consistency of approach as to how inspection reports deal with findings of serious non-compliance as opposed to minor breaches and full compliance. My Department also reviewed the penalties in place for breach of regulations, and legislative changes have been introduced to allow for an increase in the range and severity of sanctions that can be applied.
I understand that the Early Years Inspectorate follows up on complaints and makes visits to services found to be in breach of the regulations. However until the new legislation was enacted, there were no sanctions that the Inspectorate could impose other than through prosecution in the District Court. The power to impose conditions and to close services will now give the Inspectorate the capacity to deal with issues more effectively.
A number of additional measures being introduced will further strengthen the inspection framework. The new National Quality Standards for pre-school services being developed this year will complement the existing Pre-School Regulations replacing previous explanatory notes and will set out the quality outcomes and supporting criteria against which inspection under the pre-school regulations will be measured.
Standard Operating Procedures have been introduced to address issues of inconsistency and provide greater clarity for pre-school services. The Early Years Inspectorate transferred from the HSE to the Child and Family Agency when it was established in January last and 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.
On foot of Budget 2014, I will be allocating €4.5m in Exchequer funding to support the implementation of the Pre-School Quality Agenda with €0.5m of this funding being allocated towards the cost of increasing staffing levels to further strengthen the pre-school inspection system.
The new reforms also provide a statutory basis for registration of pre-school services. Under the new system, which was introduced in January this year, all pre-school services will have to be registered in order to operate. Inspectors will be empowered to specify improvement conditions that a service must comply with.
