Health inspectors who visited a Co Tipperary pre-school last April expressed concerns about the risk posed to children by an electric fence on either side of an outdoor play area as well as "foul odours" coming from a fridge, a new pre-school inspection report has revealed.
A separate Health Service Executive (HSE) inspection of a pre-school facility in Kilkenny also found three children sleeping in carseats rather than cots, prompting concerns about the risk of hanging.
This inspection, conducted last April, was prompted by a complaint after a child was injured requiring hospitalisation.None of the staff on duty had valid first aid training and medical assistance was not summoned, the report states.
Inspectors also complained that children at a Co Donegal creche were being left in front of television "aimlessly viewing with no verbal commentary from an adult" when it was inspected last December.
In the same facility, another infant was observed bottle-feeding himself while an older toddler was seen to be feeding himself alone in a highchair. However, a subsequent inspection report for April noted the work done to resolve the issues raised in the report.
The inspection reports are among more than 100 released by the HSE under the Freedom of Information Act. They relate to counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Donegal, Waterford, Wexford and Tipperary. The reports were released without payment of search and retrieval charges.
They reveal that last April inspectors expressed concern about the presence of concrete slabs propped against a fence in the external play area of a Donegal creche run by the local VEC, while a Kilkenny pre-school facility was threatened with closure due to the lack of an outside play area last May.
Most of the reports cover a three-month period from April to June of this year, although at least one dates back to an inspection in December 2005. The vast majority are positive in their assessment of the general level of care provided and frequently highlight relatively minor breaches of the regulations. But as has been the case with previous reports, few facilities are found to be in full compliance with the regulations.
Inspectors who visited the ABC Montessori in Dundrum, Co Tipperary noted the presence of "foul odours" from a fridge, and an electric fence running either side of the outdoor play area.
The facility's owner, Monica Kennedy, said yesterday that at the time of the inspection, a section of the fence surrounding the play area had been "knocked down".
But she said the Montessori centre's landlord had since addressed all of the issues raised, including the elimination of the odours in question, which had nothing to do with the centre and which she had brought to the attention of the inspection team.
"We have a totally new play area, with a new timber fence up," she said. "We have always got a positive report from inspection visits."
Inspectors who visited Kinderland in Kilkenny on foot of a complaint criticised the use of car seats for three children in its care. They said the complaint centred around the management of "a child who became ill in [ the] facility and later required hospitalisation. No member of staff present at the time had a valid first aid course."
However, one of the facility's owners, Paula Roche, said only one child was in the "car seat" - which was in fact a bouncer chair - as the child did not like being in a cot.
She could not comment on the complaint for legal reasons, but said the child in question had been brought to hospital. The staff member's first aid certificate was out of date but had been updated, she added.