Call for Tusla to get powers to immediately close childcare facilities after Hyde & Seek scandal
Fianna Fáil is calling for Tusla to have powers to immediately close childcare facilities.
It comes after the RTÉ Investigates documentary into Hyde & Seek's creches in Dublin.
Tusla said it needs more powers to protect children, and it will appear before the Oireachtas children's committee next Wednesday.
Fianna Fáil's spokesperson for children, Anne Rabbitte, was among those who asked the Child and Family Agency to attend.
Ms Rabbitte said: "The reason I have said to the clerk last week and said to the committee was to ensure that Tusla could come before us so that we could see what swift powers could be brought in, immediately, so that this cannot happen again.
"I think it is incumbent on the Oireachtas Committee for children to ensure that that discussion is had, that parents who saw that programme are screaming for answers as to how it could happen."
It comes after a parents protest at one of the creches yesterday while Garda sources said they received a complaint about one of the creches on the city's northside before the issues were raised in the RTÉ documentary this week.
It is understood parents expressed concerns to gardaí about marks that they had noticed on their child's body.
The incident in question took place earlier this month and are being investigated by gardaí at Mountjoy Station.
According to garda sources a general police investigation into the four Hyde and Seek premises has not been launched but some gardaí believe they could get more complaints from parents.
Hyde and Seek said they did not know what the allegation referred to but they had given gardaí all CCTV footage for the particular day requested by them.
