Childcare Services Dail Éireann — 2023-02-09 ============================================================ Richard Bruton (FG), Dublin Bay North I congratulate the Minister on the progress he is making but some anomalies emerged from a consultation I conducted in my constituency relating to the sector. I will outline them in a staccato manner but he might respond to each of them. They relate to: the extension of the access and inclusion model, AIM, beyond the early childhood care and education, ECCE, area, to which it is currently confined; the confusion of the huge number of inspectorates that call at the doors of childcare providers; and the anomalies in some of the staffing ratios whereby ratios much lower than those in childhood education are demanded in some parts, even for after-school service and care. Where stands the Minister's proposal to introduce a childcare development authority that would see this sector as one we have to drive on a long-term, sustainable basis with mixed providers? --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-02-09/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:33+00:00 Sitting date: 2023-02-09