Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her attendance. The two key themes in childminding are the recognition of the service provided by the childminder and the regulation required. It is estimated that 50,000 young children in Ireland are cared for every day by childminders.

However, only 1% of paid childminders are currently subjected to inspection. This is a quite stark figure.

Childminding is the number-one choice of parents who wish to return to education, training or work. As the Minister will know, children's services data are often scarce. Unfortunately, they are scarce in respect of this issue. Approximately 19,000 paid non-relative childminders care for young children every day. In the past ten years, the role of the childminder advisory officers who have been employed by various child care committees at both city and county levels throughout the country has been about trying to regulate and engage with the 19,000 paid non-relative childminders. They have been helping them to implement the national childminding guidelines set by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. Officers have been providing childminders - who are predominantly women and who have been providing an excellent and flexible service of the kind required - with access to supports and training in regard to health and safety, child protection, fire safety, diet, healthy living and even escape plans, all of which give assurance to parents when they drop their children to a childminder's home.

In the past, childminding constituted a large proportion of what was called the informal economy. After the recommendations of the expert group were implemented in 2000, a tax exemption was put in place for childminders who earn less than €15,000 per year. Bearing in mind the removal of the role in question from the city and county child care committees, childminders are concerned over who will take on the administrative role and oversee the system to allow childminders to continue to provide a vital service for young children. I refer in particular to a constituency such as mine, Waterford, where there is not a proliferation of purpose-built child care facilities. Childminders offer the assurance that parents want. It is beneficial for very young children, some as young as six months, to be cared for as part of a one-on-one arrangement in a home. Often sibling groups are part of the equation. This is reassuring to the parents who are going to work, education or training and good for the development of the child.

There is considerable concern. I had a public meeting with a number of childminders on Monday in Dungarvan, County Waterford. I noted in particular the passion and commitment to service of the group, whose members were all women but for one. They felt they had been on a journey in recent years in terms of professionalising themselves and improving their standards and the kind of care they provide to children. They now feel the rug has been pulled from under them.

See this speech in context