The Health Service Executive will move to make inspection reports on creches and other childcare facilities more readily available to parents following the release of hundreds more creche reports under Freedom of Information legislation.
The majority of childcare facilities across Dublin and surrounding areas were found to be in breach of pre-school regulations after being visited by Health Service Executive (HSE) inspectors, reports released to The Irish Times have revealed.
Among the issues highlighted are dirty or unsanitary premises, unsafe storage of hazardous materials, inadequate fire procedures, a lack of staff training in child pro-tection and children being left with inadequate supervision or unsuitable play activities.
Other areas of concern to inspectors were overcrowding, unhealthy food menus, a lack of staff records or lists of persons authorised to collect children and unsafe fixtures and fittings.
A HSE spokesman has responded to the publication of the reports by saying it plans to allow parents to access standardised pre-school inspection reports.
This would be similar to the approach it is taking to the publication of nursing home inspection reports, he said.
It would require the format of the childcare inspection reports to first be standardised across all HSE areas and any associated legal issues to be resolved.
"We can then very much look at publishing the reports, probably on the internet, so parents and prospective parents can access the information," he said.
In one of the reports, inspectors say their visit last September to a pre-school service located in the Fingal Ictu centre for the unemployed in Finglas, was prompted by concerns raised by two public health nurses. These concerns included one child who was reported to have come home from the creche with scratches; pre-school children singing "inappropriate" nursery rhymes and staff who were overheard discussing a child in the post office.
"When they were told by a witness not to discuss the child in public, the witness was told to 'F*** Off'," it states.
A spokeswoman for the centre said all of the issues which the report raised have since been addressed.
A report from March last year on Belfield creche in UCD notes that two carpets in the toddler room were "stained and dirty and so require a thorough clean ... The nappy changing unit located in toilet area is unsatisfactory ... it is strongly recommended that this facility is relocated to a more suitable area".
The creche has been under new management since the middle of last month, and has been completely redecorated in recent weeks, according to the current manager.
More than 400 inspection reports for the HSE North and East Coast areas were released to The Irish Times following the payment of substantial search and retrieval charges. The reports cover facilities catering for 10 or more children over the 12-month period to September 30th last.