Crèches may lose State funds over standards breaches - Fitzgerald

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore have confirmed that State funding may be withdrawn from crèches or pre-schools if they are found to have breached childcare guidelines.

Ms Fitzgerald said contracts with crèches in receipt of Government money as part of the free pre-school year would be reviewed and the ability to withdraw funding to ensure compliance was to be strengthened.

“You have to be clear about what the red line issues are in terms of treatment of children and we will work out a detailed approach to saying to those who are providing services ‘you will not get funding if you are not meeting the range of criteria’ which they should be meeting,” she said.

The move comes amid concern about the welfare of children at three crèches featured in RTÉ’s Prime Time documentary Breach of Trust. It included secretly-recorded footage of staff manhandling children, shouting at them, snatching toys from their hands and toddlers strapped in highchairs for hours.

The companies that run the crèches featured in the broadcast have received several million euro in recent years in State funding for the provision of the free preschool year and in capital development grants.

Mr Gilmore today insisted a Government-run internship programme would not be approved for any of the three facilities exposed in the programme.

On reducing State support for childcare facilities that failed to meet standards, he said: “The funding will be cut where the standards are not beign maintained...there is no question about that.”

Mr Gilmore added. “This Government will not tolerate a situation where taxpayers’ money is being used to subsidise facilities that are not treating children properly.”

Ms Fitzgerald said for-profit crèches were to be examined to see if there were patterns of non-compliance with regulations.

Gordon Jeyes, head of the new child and family support agency, will carry out the review which is aimed at setting up a national approach to ensure consistency across the sector, she said.

“We need to understand more thoroughly what is in the inspection reports and to see is there a pattern of non-compliance for example in the for-profit sector,” she said today. “What we haven’t had is a national analysis of that and I’ve asked Gordon Jeyes to do that.”

Gardaí, meanwhile, have begun an inquiry to establish if the Prime Time footage captures any criminal activity.

All of the footage recorded covertly has been taken by the Garda for examination, with sources saying it will be studied as part of a “scoping” exercise with a view to starting a full criminal investigation.

A number of families of the children involved viewed the footage in the week before it was aired on Tuesday night. They have been in contact with the Garda and have given statements.

Some of the creches at the centre of the controversy yesterday confirmed that some parents had withdrawn their children from the childcare facilities.

There was a mixed reaction from parents who collected their children from the facilities yesterday, with some praising the level of care while others expressed shock at the footage.

The centres involved are Little Harvard in Rathnew in Co Wicklow, Giraffe in Belarmine, Stepaside, and Links in Malahide, Dublin.

The creches have either suspended some staff members or have begun internal investigations.

HSE investigations into the incidents at all three centres are under way.