Creche revelations - A wake-up call State must act on

The disturbing revelations in undercover video footage of what goes on behind closed doors of some creches entrusted by parents to care for their children were yesterday described in the Dáil as a “wake-up call”.

Nothing could be further from reality. As today’s front page reproduction of Irish Examiner investigations shows, the murky world of childcare is not new. Yet, despite the frightening similarities between Tuesday’s Prime Time programme and the campaign by this newspaper, nothing has changed since the shocking revelations of how children were treated in creches first appeared in these columns.

If the wake-up call is for anyone, it should be aimed at ineffective politicians, plus the HSE and other state institutions that failed abysmally to control profit-oriented creche companies operating with little regard for children’s needs. With uncanny similarity, the Irish Examiner investigations have now been vindicated by graphic TV evidence, resulting in Garda investigations at three creches.