Senator Paul Coghlan also raised the issue of local authority parking charges and asked for a debate with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government on this issue. This is a concern for many city and town centre traders and we will see if the Minister will attend the House for a debate.

Senator van Turnhout raised the issue that went on to dominate the rest of today’s Order of Business, namely, last night's RTE "Prime Time" programme, "Breach of Trust", which investigated crèches. Senators Norris, Hayden, Mooney, Ó Clochartaigh, Conway, Jim D’Arcy, Harte, O’Donovan, Keane, Wilson, Healy Eames, Noone and Moran also raised that issue. It is rightly the pressing issue of the day. I saw the programme myself and, as a mother of young children in crèches, it was deeply affecting. I commend the RTE "Prime Time" team for its excellent and superb work. It should not have taken a TV programme to do this. It was upsetting and harrowing to watch the abusive, inappropriate and harsh treatment of young children and to hear about the extensive breaches of the regulations taking place. This is unacceptable.

Other Members pointed out, however, that this does not reflect the experience the majority of parents of children in crèches. It is hard for decent and dedicated child care workers today to watch the programme. I spoke to one earlier this morning who told me she could not watch it as it was too upsetting. The majority of crèches provide an excellent service and the majority of parents are happy with the child care services they are getting. Of course, that does not excuse in any way the minority. We need to take action on this issue.

Many of us will have heard the statement by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs this morning. Both sides of the House paid tribute to her commitment to taking action to ensure these sorts of breaches and abusive behaviour do not go unsanctioned. It would be useful for the Minister to attend the House on the matter but I am not sure about today. It might be more helpful to have her attend in the coming days or weeks when we can hear what exactly is going on. There is a thorough and comprehensive investigation under way by both the HSE and, appropriately, the Garda. Those of us who saw the programme will have seen abusive behaviour towards very young children.

It is appropriate that the Garda should be involved.

Clearly, the Minister is conscious of the need to deliver improvements in the quality of the child care provided in the early years. She appreciates that improvements are particularly needed in the inspections and sanctions regimes. She has instructed the HSE to commence the online publication of HSE inspection reports shortly. The need for greater transparency about the HSE inspection reports came through strongly in last night's programme. Parents are entitled to see these reports, but they are not made available to them, unless they ask their child care providers to make them available or make a freedom of information request to the HSE. That is not transparent. It is impractical to require parents to make requests in respect of a number of crèches. Having a more transparent regime of publication would be much more appropriate. The Minister is standardising the reporting processes and formats to pave the way for publication. I understand from speaking with child care providers that there is a difficulty in this regard. There would have to be a standardised format for publishing not only the initial report, but also the follow-up letters and the engagement between child care providers and the HSE on compliance. Over 2,600 child care providers were subject to inspections by the HSE in 2011 and 2012. That represented an inspection rate of over 60% of all providers in each year. That overall figure does not reflect the discrepancy between areas, as we saw last night and which is a matter of real concern.

The issue of qualifications was raised by a number of Senators. Some 87% of all staff working in child care have a qualification that is equal to or higher than FETAC level 5. That figure increases to 98% in the case of core staff working in the preschool year. Some improvements have been made in that regard. Plans are being advanced to require the registration of all child care providers. This represents a move away from the current system which requires prospective child care providers merely to notify the HSE of their intention to set up a service. It is clear that improvements are in train. Senators will be aware that the Government has updated the Children First guidelines. Garda vetting of child care staff is required under the revised regulations. The National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill 2012 has been passed. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has granted sanction for an additional 25 staff to be redeployed to the Garda central vetting unit from other Departments. We are seeing great improvements and great progress is being made. It would be useful if the Minister, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, were to come to the House to update us on the measures being taken to improve regulation and inspection facilities for the formal and informal child care sectors. The informal child care sector was mentioned by Senator Aideen Hayden and others. As parents and citizens, we need to ensure these improvements continue.

I appreciate the concerns that have been expressed which I think we all share. We have to be mindful of our language. It is not helpful to the parents of the children filmed to hear people speaking, for example, about "a Nazi concentration camp". Such language is inappropriate.

Absolutely.

Clearly, there was abusive behaviour. We saw some desperately harrowing scenes last night. We should be mindful of the hurt being felt by the parents whose children were shown in the footage and who could be identified by those who know them. I commend RTE for its decision which was taken in conjunction with the parents not to put the programme on the RTE player and not to repeat it. The parents of the children shown were concerned about this aspect of the matter. They did not want the footage to be repeated endlessly or to be put on the RTE player. A sensitive and respectful decision was taken.

Well done.

We need to be mindful of this in our response to the programme, which is one of absolutely justified outrage. I know the Cathaoirleach will make a ruling under Standing Order 30, but separately I will ask the Leader to arrange a debate at an early stage with the Minister, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, on the measures to be taken in response to the concerns raised in the programme.

Senator David Norris referred to the registration with the Standards in Public Office Commission of lobbying groups such as the Iona Institute. I followed up the matter when the Senator raised it on a previous occasion when I was responding to the Order of Business and have not yet received a response. I will certainly pursue it again. I share the Senator's specific concern about the commission's lack of power of sanction. We need to look at that issue.

Senator David Norris also referred to the possible abolition of the Seanad. The Leader has said the Bill on the referendum which will allow the people to decide on the future of this House is likely to come before us in the next month.