The Government said today that the State’s childcare inspection regime needs to be strengthened in the wake of last night’s RTE Prime Time programme, which highlighted the apparent mistreatment of children at three crèches.
Secretly recorded footage at the three crèches in Dublin and Wicklow showed childcare staff manhandling children, screaming at them, forcing them into seats roughly and snatching toys from their hands. Some of the footage, which was recorded by an RTE researcher who had gone undercover as a worker at the childcare centres, showed several toddlers strapped in highchairs for hours on end without anything to stimulate them and staff fabricating diaries relating to the children's activities.
The centres involved are Little Harvard in Rathnew in Co Wicklow, Giraffe in Belarmine, Stepaside and Links in Malahide, Dublin.
The three creches featured in the footage have either suspended some staff members or have begun internal investigations. Garda and HSE investigations into the incidents are also under way.
Speaking the Dail this morning, Taoiseach Enda Kenny described the A Breach of Trust documentary as a “shocking exposé’’. He said childcare is a profession and should not be regarded as a business or industry, and that whether a facility is for profit or not, the highest standards must apply across the board. However, he said it was also important to say that not all child care services were the same.
The programme had brought to the fore the need to have quality of care at the core of childcare, in terms of inspections, attitudes and the treatment of children, he said.
"What we saw last night is an abuse of responsibility and we have to take whatever measures necessary to stamp out that appalling situation, and that's why there is a Garda investigation and an HSE investigation," Mr Kenny said, adding that legislation strengthening the rights of children would be brought before the Dail in the next four to five weeks.
Parents outside Links, where footage showed children being flung onto mats during sleep time and having their heads covered with blankets, gave mixed reactions to the revelations today.
“We are taking our child out straight away,” one father said. “We don’t want to hear that this is a once-off incident. It seems to be a crèche run by accountants.”
However, a mother was unconvinced by the allegations of poor care. “I didn’t think it was as bad as I imagined,” she said. “I kind of feel sorry for [the staff].”
Links Childcare said this afternoon it is working to provide real time video monitoring of its facilities, subject to parental consent. In a statement, it said it was looking at providing access to the CCTV system through a smartphone app.
Giraffe, which runs the Belarmine crèche in Stepaside, Dublin that was featured in the programme, said it was “profoundly sorry” for the distress caused to the parents and children. One staff member had been suspended and the company’s practises have been reviewed it said, to include the installation of CCTV throughout all centres, increased training for all staff in child protection and managing children’s behaviour, and a complete reassessment of risk management procedures.
Little Harvard said it was taking all steps necessary to ensure that “these shortcomings are not repeated” and would continue to carry out a full investigation into the incidents and review all options available to improve services at the crèche.
Earlier, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said the programme showed young children being subjected to "emotional abuse", describing the treatment as "absolutely unacceptable".
Parents who watched the programme would have been "haunted" by the images broadcast, she said. "The instances we saw in relation to young children and the way they were being dealt with, the way they were being fed and the lack of understanding of a child's development at the age of two, all of those instances were dreadful to watch, deeply upsetting, unacceptable and cannot continue," she said on RTÉ Morning Ireland.
Crèches and pre-schools in some parts of the country have not been inspected by authorities for up to four years, despite hundreds of complaints from parents regarding standards across the sector.
Asked if she felt the current inspection regime was inadequate, Ms Fitzgerald replied: “The whole area of under fives has been inadequately focused on in the past 10 years. I believe that we have not put enough attention into these areas.”
The HSE last night defended its inspection regime and said about 60 per cent of all creches were inspected last year.
“Creches receive a visit from an inspector on average every 18 to 24 months,” it said in a statement. “This compares favourably with other jurisdictions where visits take place, in the UK for example, every three to four years.”