Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in this morning and apologise for having to run out for a while; I had to deal with a child care issue. It is mid-term break, which poses a difficulty for working parents. Please excuse me for nipping out.

The issue of child minders has not arisen so far, but I would like to tease out this issue further. The report commissioned by Donegal County Childcare Committee mentioned Letterkenny and families not being able to access subsidised places because the subsidy only goes to community based child care centres. Is one of the recommendations therefore that we should roll out those incentives to child minders? Start Strong has been quite strong on the issue of registration, but currently registration is voluntary.

Currently, childminders who voluntarily register are allowed to earn €15,000 tax-free and can make a PRSI contribution, which is very important in terms of claiming a State pension when they are older. Do the witnesses have any views on the implementation of a mandatory registration scheme for childminders? In my constituency of Waterford, parents are facing difficulties in accessing community child care places and childminders are the preferred option for many. Indeed, it is my own preferred option as a parent. How can we use the infrastructure that is already in place to meet the needs of parents who want to go back to work or education? How can the State support such parents?

Often when we talk about child care, people automatically think about centre-based child care but that is not the most common form of service provision across the country. Centre-based child care also requires enormous capital investment. In Australia, child minding is called home-based day care. The city and county child care committees all over the country have done an incredible amount of work with childminders in terms of professionalising, supporting and educating them to ensure that the children in their care have a high quality experience. That is extremely important because all parents love their children and want them to have the best possible start in life. It is difficult for parents who have to make the decision to hand their beloved over to others to be cared for and they want to be sure that their children are safe and well looked after. I ask the witnesses to give their views on the potential of child minding to assist parents who wish to re-enter the workforce. How can it be regulated and what would the benefits of doing that be?