Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late. I was at another meeting this morning but I am thoroughly aware of all the delegates' submissions. I do not wish to ask questions but I want to state that, in the past few weeks when preparing for the proposals we will be making to the public on the next five years, I have done a lot of research on child care. As Senator Byrne stated, this arises from the issue that was so eloquently put by Mags Coogan and her team to the HSE in Meath in recent years. The ECCE scheme is absolutely wonderful in principle - Fianna Fáil is to be commended on it - but it is an awful pity it did not assign SNAs when it was established and when there was an obvious need for them. Equally, it is an awful pity that we have not had the money to do so in a consistent fashion nationwide. I commend the HSE in Meath for having the gumption to allocate money for it. We all know it is not enough money, but at least the authorities are trying to address the situation. We will work with them co-operatively to try to ensure there is more money. There is a real need for SNAs to be assigned to children in this sector. It is the only sector associated with our educational programme for those between zero and 20-something in which we do not support children with special needs. It is glaringly obvious that this needs to be done. I believe there will be provision in the Estimates this year, which is very welcome.

Let me make two other points. We nearly want all staff in the sector to have PhDs coming out of their ears, yet we want to pay them as if they were flipping burgers in McDonald's. That is wrong and needs to be addressed. The capitation funding that has been offered has been cut in recent years but, as Deputy Mitchell O'Connor stated, we are now in a position to start trying to unravel some of the financial emergency measures that were taken because the last Government put us off a cliff. This is definitely one area that needs to be addressed. The capitation improvements need to be examined, and sooner rather than later.

We need to resource staff to meet the improved standards and attain the qualifications we require of them in the health care and education sectors. It is not just a matter of capitation. The educational resources pertaining to the qualifications that we would like employees in the sector to have need to be in place. Ms Akerlind is correct that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. We need to work with the universities to ensure they work in tandem regarding the resources and hours being worked in the sector to ensure we all go along this journey together and achieve what we want - namely, excellence in the delivery of education for preschool children. However, we have to ensure we resource the sector to enable it to meet the standards it wants to meet and that we want for all children.

I hope the SNA issue will be sorted out by the Government this year. I genuinely hope that, as money becomes available over the coming years, we will return to circumstances in which we pay staff to reflect the quality and standard of the care and educational resources they are providing to children. I am not quite sure I care whether there are men in the industry, because the service being offered is superb. I want to ensure the staff are being paid to reflect the quality of the service they are giving.