Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The difficulty with the sustainability fund is that it is not an application. It is a management process to which you must submit. I feel a bit aggrieved that I was briefed to go out on the media with this as the catch all where services were under pressure, and there are services under pressure, but it is not as dynamic and responsive as I believed it was going to be. I countered some of the arguments by asking "Where are services cut up short?" In my constituency, there are services that were challenged and that had not put up their fees since 2017 and consequently found themselves on the back foot with new providers opening up and being able to charge much higher rates. My concern is that you could have two services side by side both with similar provision, both getting core funding, one that has been longer in existence and consequently subjected to a fee freeze and a new one coming into being and having greater flexibility. This is unfair when we really want more services all of the time because it is so essential. The piece that made my blood boil the other day was the fact that if you were not going into work until 10 a.m. as an edict of the State, you did not necessarily have an entitlement to pay but most prevailed upon their employers' goodwill for it.

Another bone of contention in the sector is the inspectorate and the inconsistencies among inspectors. I know of services where an inspector has gone in at the right intervals over a ten or 12-year period and in another instance, has walked through exactly the same door and then found fault. Nothing had changed in the meantime - no preschool regulations - but all of a sudden, it was a problem because there were whatever challenges were there. Alternatively, it could be down to personality issues. If there is a finding of non-compliance, a matter might be corrected there and then during the inspector's visit but it still gets published as non-compliance. This is terribly unfair to people who slog really hard to make sure they provide the best for children. The inspectorate regime needs to ensure it is consistent regardless of who walks into the service and that it is predictable. I was involved in a service where under the previous inspectorate system, the HSE was involved in the design of the crèche and the same inspectorate came in and found fault in the design it had put in place when it was in private use later. It was so substantial in the sleep room that it ended up closing the service. There are inconsistencies and this needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.