James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to say there will be no impact as a consequence of moving this money from this head back to Tusla front-line services. The objective of Ireland's early years strategy is to create an innovative and dynamic blueprint for the future development of Ireland's early years sector and a coherent approach to seeking to improve the lives of children from birth to six years. The strategy will address a range of issues affecting children in the first years of life, such as child health and well-being, parenting and family support, learning and development, and play. Considerable work has been done on the development of the early years strategy, and from the start the work of the expert advisory group has greatly informed the work. I have signalled my intention to conduct focused consultations with relevant parties throughout the early childhood care and education sector before concluding my own deliberations on the strategy. I am also mindful of the importance of other work which has been undertaken in parallel, in respect of the future investment priorities in child care. Taking account of these developments, I expect to be in a position to publish the strategy once my consultations have concluded in the coming months.