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Childcare regulations: Regulatory enforcement in Ireland. What happens when the inspector calls?

Childcare regulations ensure children’s rights to Early Childhood Care and Education settings that protect them from harm and promote their healthy development. To ensure that settings comply, power is vested with regulatory bodies that are tasked with enforcing regulations. Using a qualitative methodology, 43 interviews were undertaken with Early Childhood Care and Education managers, early childhood educators, support agencies and members of the pre-school inspectorate to explore their perspectives of the regulatory environment in Ireland. In a context where reform of the pre-school inspectorate is currently underway, this article provides insight into how Early Childhood Care and Education managers and educators experience the current inspection system. Findings suggest that managers and educators experience a sense of frustration and helplessness in terms of regulatory enforcement. There is evidence of inconsistency across inspections that may be linked to inadequate inspectorate qualifications. In common with other researchers, that is, Early Childhood Ireland, Start Strong and Moloney participants in this study call for an expansion of the inspectorate to include somebody with early childhood education specifically.