Ms Maria Corbett:

I echo the request to ensure that there is a package of family leave to enable a child to remain at home for the first year. I echo what Ms O'Connor has said about how the recent budget has weakened the rate of maternity benefit and brought it into the tax net. We are before the committee today making the case that we need to protect the payments, extend them and bring in paid paternity leave to create a family leave package that will cover the first year.

Reference was made to the question about a second free preschool year. We are supportive of its introduction. We are cognisant, however, that we need to get the quality right before we roll it out. I am a little concerned now that it has dropped off the political agenda and the timeline has been pushed out. Although we are saying we want it but only when the quality is right, that should not mean we do nothing for the next couple of years. It means we should start planning now to get the quality right and secure some timelines to make a plan for how we bring in the second year. Otherwise, I fear it will simply drop away. I am concerned that the commitment is being pushed further out.

This ties in with the fact that we still have no national early years strategy. It has been promised, but it is late. Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, the national framework that the early years strategy was meant to come under, has been published. The problem is that when we are discussing the budget, funding and the choices we need to make, we do not have a national coherent strategy guiding us. As we can see from all the inputs, it is very much an interdepartmental issue and it crosses into many areas. I am concerned that without a national strategy, a clear budget or a clear vision, this issue may progress but only in a piecemeal fashion and in a manner in which we are simply responding to crises. The "Prime Time" programme made for disturbing watching. It led to a response, but we need to maintain the momentum to ensure that the elements promised as a result actually come to fruition. It goes back to the point I started with. We have done a great deal of talking on this issue, but the question is whether things have changed for the child and parents. We need to question that.

I have looked at the report card we use to track this area year-on-year. This year I really struggled with it. Reference was made to how we have a new inspectorate and a focus on education. I thought this was a mistake, and I had to go back to try to understand how we had added a new layer in without bringing it into the existing inspectorate. Furthermore, while I welcome the focus on education, it is a difficult area to navigate. I say that as an outsider looking in, but it must be even more difficult for providers who have to work with it and meet those regulations.

Reference was made to children with special needs and disabilities. This area really needs a joined-up approach. The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act remains largely un-commenced. We need to recognise the importance of early intervention, prevention, social integration and supporting parents in the early years in cases in which a child has been born with, has developed or is developing a special need or disability. That is the fundamental time to intervene and support the children and families in question.

All children in Ireland have a right to access the free preschool year. It is unacceptable that children with special needs are being denied access to the scheme or denied the right on the basis that the providers maintain they would like to include the children but are simply insufficiently supported. We have to address that. It is a serious position that our publicly supported services are unable to meet the needs of those children.

I echo the point about special educational needs assistants. While they do fantastic work and I have great respect for the work they do, I do not believe that term should be the answer to this issue. There is no clarity as to the qualifications a person needs to be an SNA. Obviously the National Council for Special Education has progressed recently in respect of clarifying its role in schools. Anyway, we need not necessarily go down that route. We can look at what is needed in the early years settings. Earlier, we discussed a fund to ensure that a service could provide the extra supports, as opposed to adding one extra assistant for each child. I believe we could move away from that model and try to think about it in a more integrated way.

Finally, let us consider the question of quality. The inputs made already have been very helpful. In the discussion about the day-to-day experience for a child in the early years settings, one factor we have not mentioned is the length of time they are in the centre. If a child is in a centre for too long, the benefits start to drop away, if that makes sense. We need to support families to enable them to engage in education and work but they need to be able to do so within a reasonable timeframe and such that they can get their children from the child care centres in good time, because if the day is too long for the child, the benefits start to roll back somewhat.

My last point relates to quality. We have talked about inspectorates, health and safety and the role of education. I am keen for a focus on food within the services, especially in areas of high deprivation in Ireland where food poverty is a real issue. We have heard from one of the early years centres. The relevant people took the view that food was a major issue in those families. We need to look at how we can extend the school meals programme and consider how we can bring that in to early years settings in communities where people are struggling with food poverty.

If we want to improve quality in early years settings we need to focus on the staff. We need increased qualifications and professionalisation but we also need to consider it in terms of what is happening from day to day. What about the curriculum? Aistear and Síolta are the national quality frameworks around the curriculum for early years. We need to ensure they are fully rolled out and supported. As I understand it, they are considered to be patchy within the sector as a whole.