On Tuesday evening RTE broadcast a Prime Time special – A Breach of Trust -on childcare and crèches. Using secretly recorded film of three crèches the programme showed disturbing images of young children, some between one and two years of age, being emotionally and physically abused by some staff. While it acknowledged that its under-cover researcher witnessed some very good examples of childcare the focus was on the ill-treatment that occurred. This included children being thrown about like a rag doll at nap time in one crèche; children being strapped for hours at a time into chairs with no stimulation available; staff shouting and cursing at children; lax supervision, poor or no training, and insufficient numbers of staff to cope with the children; and staff falsifying diaries of children’s activities. The programme revealed that 75% of all crèches in the state are breaching mandatory standards. The programme also revealed that there are no inspectors in local health offices...