Any policy changes stemming from the current debate on childcare must “respect the choices parents actually 
want to make in respect of how their young children are cared for during the day and not favour crèches over home” the Iona Institute has said.
The statement was issued following a Prime Time report which found that children had been mistreated in a number of creches in Dublin and Wicklow.
Responding to suggestions that Ireland implement a universal State-funded early education creche programme, it said that such a scheme would “effectively mean that parents who wish to look after their young children at home will end up subsidising parents who either want to or have to place them in crèches. This would be unfair”.
Toby Wolfe, of early education body, Start Strong, said that Prime Time’s investigation “showed widespread breaches of regulations, insufficient inspections, and a lack of follow-through on non-compliance.”
He said, “High quality early care and education can be hugely beneficial for children, and we know that there is much good practice in services across Ireland. However, it is clear that there is also bad practice, which – as Prime Time showed – can be harmful to children. Overall, quality is variable, and the lack of assurance is unacceptable.
He claimed that the broadcast showed that “the mistreatment of children reflects structural problems in our system of early care and education, as well as insufficient investment. At the same time, it showed that a large volume of public funds has gone into services where quality standards are low or questionable, including through the Free Pre-School Year”.
He said: “Prime Time revealed significant public funding going to some services that are making substantial profits, while staff are paid low wages and have poor working conditions, and quality standards are too low.”
Meanwhile, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore have confirmed that State funding may be withdrawn from crèches or pre-schools if they are found to have breached childcare guidelines.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 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.”