The head of Tusla will tell TDs it is the “professionalism” of childcare workers that keeps children safe in crèches as he admits regulations and inspections alone cannot prevent abuses happening.

Pat Smyth, interim chief executive of the child and family agency, will appear before the Oireachtas Children’s Committee today to discuss last week’s ‘RTÉ Investigates’ programme ‘Crèches, Behind Closed Doors’, which exposed shocking breaches of regulations at several Hyde and Seek sites in Dublin.

He is expected to tell the committee that Tusla inspectors had “no evidence of the serious child protection concerns or the high degree to serious non-compliance with standards that was shown in the RTÉ programme”.

He will say the “behaviours displayed are unlikely to be evident during an inspection”.

Mr Smyth will say: “While regulation and inspection is an essential component in identifying and addressing risks within the early years sector, the Early Years Inspectorate alone cannot regulate for individual behaviours which are not in evidence during inspections or not reported to Tusla through other appropriate channels.

“It is the professionalism of individuals that keeps children safe and also ensures the delivery of good care.”

Meanwhile, more crèche horror stories are on the way unless the Government orders a major shake-up of the sector, it has been warned.

A union representative for 4,000 childcare workers has said profiteering must be eliminated to avoid such scenarios.

Undercover footage revealed children were fed watered-down milk and cheap noodles at Hyde and Seek facilities.

The programme also raised serious concerns about child to adult ratios, including a single staff member looking after 18 babies, Garda vetting procedures for staff, rough handling of children and fire safety.

Hyde and Seek owner Anne Davy resigned ahead of the RTÉ documentary.

Siptu’s head of organising and campaigns Darragh O’Connor said he was surprised by some of the worst revelations. But he said he has heard anecdotal evidence from members about below-standard ratios of teachers to children.

“A robust inspection regime is needed and profits cannot be the driving force of the system or there could be more cases like this,” he said. “That’s what happens when profit’s at the core rather than what children want.

“The State should take over all or a portion of funding of wages to improve services.”

Staff earn €11.18 an hour and many are leaving for other jobs, Mr O’Connor said.

“I don’t think things like watering down milk are an epidemic but there are issues particularly around ratios and a high turnover of staff, particularly at bigger chains,” he added.

Relationships between children and their teachers are constantly being broken, he said. “There are no state-run facilities… We need a mix with not-for-profit and for-profit ventures. Tusla can’t be in every room in every service.”

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