Minister for children Brian Lenihan, due to unveil new childcare regulations in the next few weeks, stunned the early years sector when he said training creche staff could push up costs.
He was speaking in the wake of revelations in the Irish Examiner newspaper that some complaints in 2003-04 related to repeated slapping of children, toddlers being left alone in public places and a child sustaining a dislocated arm. In one case a member of staff was sacked for tying a child's hands behind their back with sticky tape.
Martina Murphy, spokesperson of the National Children's Nurseries Association, said that staff working in the sector had been 'frustrated and disturbed' by the revelations, which the newspaper obtained from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) under the Freedom of Information Act.
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