Childcare Services
Dail Éireann — 2025-11-12
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Claire Kerrane (SF), Roscommon-Galway

Respectfully, the problem is that some of those childminders at that point will be gone. If we are waiting for them to register with Tulsa and we then engage with them at that point, is it under 200 of the 13,000 or 14,000 childminders in the State who have registered with Tusla to date? It is happening at a snail’s pace. If that is what we are waiting for, then the review will be almost a waste of time. At a time when we are short about 40,000 or 50,000 childcare places in this State, we have childminders who have given 17, 18 and 19 years of service. They are signing up for regulations, including inspections, that they have no detail or information on in terms of people coming into their homes. They deserve better than that. There is not a childminder in the State that is not willing to comply with the regulations. Most of them are Garda vetted. They have done first aid training. They are doing what is being asked of them in the bulk of the regulations that are laid out. However, I see no reason when we are almost 14 months on that the Minister is not in a position to say that in the new year, we will carry out the review and get this right. That is what we all want, but childminders are leaving now and that is the problem. There does not seem to be an acknowledgement of that. The Minister is hearing it from this side of the House, and it is concerning that she is not actually hearing it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-11-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-12