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.

This paper’s first exposé was published on Mar 20, 2006, under the all too familiar banner headline ‘Every Parent’s Nightmare’. A headline much repeated in recent days. Chronicling disturbing details of neglect and abuse in the nation’s creches, it uncovered a disturbing and hidden world. For instance, a child left alone in a public place after a creche outing; another found wandering in a public area after becoming separated from a play group; a staff member sacked after a child was put in the corner, hands tied behind its back with sticky tape; and a creche closed following repeated complaints that children were slapped. Political promises were uttered but unfulfilled.

The following year, an investigation (Oct 20, 2007) revealed: a three-year-old girl locked in room for being “bold”; and a boy given Calpol to make him drowsy. More empty promises.

By the time the next investigation was published (Oct 29, 2008) the lack of action by state agencies was utterly indefensible. It showed, for instance that: a family was not contacted after a girl had fractured her arm; two toddlers who had left a creche unnoticed were found by a passer-by on a main road; children were unattended when staff went for lunch; and a creche operating without insurance for four years.

Suddenly, following decades of state neglect of childcare, a veritable explosion of creches was triggered during the Celtic Tiger era to feed economic demand for more working women. Funded by state grants, more than 4,000 creches sprang up across the country.

However, as evidenced by the long-running Irish Examiner campaign and underlined by RTÉ’s disturbing video images, the inaction of successive governments left appalling gaps in crucial regulation and inspection. The customary political pledges are again being uttered to assuage public anger over the lack of inspectors, infrequent scrutiny of creches, the nonsense of giving advance notice of inspection, inadequate training of staff, vetting of unsuitable and violent personnel, not to mention falsification of records. If new legislation is to have any meaning these issues must be tackled.

The main difference between what this newspaper revealed and the RTÉ findings has been the powerful influence of the video camera. That is a most convincing argument for installing video recorders in all creches, with inspectors getting full access to them.