Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 January 2024
1336. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the reason why inspections of childcare facilities are not managed by one agency and how much extra costs does the State incur arising from multiple agencies conducting multiple inspections of the same facility. [56700/23]
View answerQuality assurance of early learning and care (ELC) settings currently includes inspections carried out by both the Tusla Early Years Inspectorate and the Department of Education Inspectorate, while inspection of school-age childcare (SAC) settings is undertaken by the Tusla Early Years Inspectorate.
The Tusla Early Years Inspectorate is the independent statutory regulator for the early learning and childcare sector. Tusla are committed to ensuring that children attending ELC and SAC services are safe, that they receive appropriate care and have a positive experience where they can develop and learn in a quality service.
The Department of Education Inspectorate conducts education-focused inspections of ELC services that receive funding from my Department. These inspections evaluate the quality of the nature, range and appropriateness of the early educational experiences for children participating in ELC services.
Under First 5, as recently announced, my Department is beginning a design and implementation planning process to bring together the functions carried out by Tusla’s Early Years Inspectorate and the Department of Education (DE) Inspectorate’s Early Years team into a single body that provides integrated care and education inspections.
The Tusla Early Years Inspectorate costs in 2023 were approximately €7 million. In 2024, the Tusla Early Years Inspectorate has been allocated approximately €11 million. The majority of this increase is related to the plans to extend regulation to childminders later this year, in line with the National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028.
It should be noted that, in addition to ELC services, the Department of Education Inspectorate carries out inspections of primary and post primary schools, as well as the education provision of other centres of education. The Department of Education Inspectorate is funded through the Department of Education and questions regarding their budget should be directed to that Department.
Pobal, more specifically Pobal Compliance, Audit and Risk (CAR), are responsible for carrying out compliance inspections on providers in the ELC and SAC sector. These inspections are separate to the quality assurance inspections and are there to ensure that beneficiary scheme monies are being used appropriately and that risks to Exchequer funding are detected and minimised. The budget from these inspections comes from the budget allocated to Pobal.
