Fianna Fáil spokesperson for Children and Youth Affairs Anne Rabbitte TD has called for greater transparency in how crèches are registered with Tusla. Figures released to Deputy Rabbitte show 10% of providers have specific conditions applied to their registration.
Data released on Tuesday show that 595 early years services are registered with specific compliance conditions, which equates to around 10% of all crèches around the country, including 321 providers in Dublin.
Deputy Rabbitte commented:
These figures show that there are crèches that have been told by Tusla that there were certain shortcomings found during previous inspections that the crèche hasn’t remedied but Tusla allows them to continue operating under the assumption they will be fixed. These requirements are issues of noncompliance relating to overcrowding, staff ratios, Garda vetting, fire safety, incorrect sleeping arrangements, and staff qualifications, among others.
She continued:
Tusla refuses to say where these crèches are, and crèches are not obliged to display their registration, so parents have to actively seek out the information and see if their crèche is affected. Many parents are likely unaware such conditions are attached to the crèche their child is in. I think it’s important people find out if their crèche has conditions, which is information that’s available on Tusla’s website, and then make sure that the crèche is adhering to them. If not, they need to raise their concerns with the crèche staff.
Deputy Rabbitte concluded:
What’s important here is TRANSPARENCY. Parents are paying a lot of money for childcare and need to be able to make informed decisions about what’s best for their child.
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