Commitment to improve childcare ‘meaningless’

OPPOSITION parties have described the Government’s commitment to improve child safety in crèches as “meaningless waffle”.

Minister for Children Brendan Smith yesterday promised parents that crèche inspection reports will shortly be available on line. He was responding to a report in the Irish Examiner which revealed that 90% of crèches do not comply with childcare regulations. The findings were based on a trawl of almost 2,000 crèche reports. The majority were guilty of minor breaches.

Mr Smith said the Government was attaching “the utmost urgency” to plans to go live with the reports in 2008.