Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 7 May 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children

Child Care: Discussion

9:30 am

Photo of Jillian van TurnhoutJillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

These are the figures that the witnesses presented to us. The people in question have degrees. We are encouraging people to become more qualified and we discuss the word "quality", yet we do not seem to recognise either. I do not know whether professionals having to go on the dole in the summer would be accepted in any other professional career. Why do we tolerate and accept this?

The word "quality" has been thrown around the room. Could one of the witnesses paint for me a picture of what quality looks like? I have in mind ratios and degrees. From the perspective of children and parents, however, what do we mean by "quality"? I do not know. We throw the word around. I just want to be sure.

Rates pose an issue, and when the Valuations Act 2015 was before the Seanad, we received a great deal of support from everyone when we tried to address it. The State is setting all of the parameters for the free preschool year, for example, capitation, space, ratios and the fact that parents cannot be charged. I am supportive of these, but there can be differences between the rates charged by various towns that are only a few miles apart. We debate the private, public and community provision of child care and listen to the providers of the free preschool year, but that is the wrong place to make the differentiation. They are providing a contract and the Government should be seeking value for money. We should explore the rates issue.

Regarding special needs assistants, SNAs, and children with special educational needs, it was stated that 11% had to be turned away. Those parents are probably already struggling.

It is important, not only for that child but for all children, that he or she is part of that setting. It is telling - this, again, is something about which we should perhaps be shouting more - that while the Department of Education and Skills provides more than 6,500 special needs assistants in primary schools, it provides none in the early childhood education sector, despite all that we know about the need to interact much earlier with children. While there are one or two State agencies that make provision in this area, the contribution of the Department of Education and Skills is zero, which says a lot.

On costs, the State has questions to answer about the number of Departments and agencies involved in the provision of child care and interested in the issue. In this regard I saw a map which had been provided by Mr. Thomas Walsh of NUIM and was confused. I had thought I understood the sector. On inspections, a person choosing to operate a child care service needs to know the basis on which the service is to be inspected, how it will be inspected and by whom it will be inspected. Many Departments are involved in inspections. Perhaps they might involve themselves more in ensuring quality in the delivery of services.

My final point is about how we do this and where we invest. It is very telling that the take-up of the free preschool year is 95%. This means that parents do value it. As rightly stated, there is an issue about childminding and I would include au pairs in that mix. I know that it is a smaller grouping, but the fact is we are allowing this sector to go unregulated. I have met the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to discuss this issue. As nobody wants to take responsibility for the issue of au pairs, it falls between two stools. We have people in Ireland who are minding children, but who are unregulated. For me, that is wrong.

On the free preschool year, previously we had the early child care supplement, which was a cash transfer. In fairness to the Minister for Finance at the time, the late Brian Lenihan, and the then Minister of State, former Deputy Barry Andrews, they withdrew the supplement and introduced the free preschool year because it was determined investment was the answer. I certainly back the calls for investment.

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