Dr. Fergal Lynch:

All of those issues will certainly be looked at and there is a series of drivers that will help us in that regard.

I shall make an overall point about all of these questions because a number of Deputies and Senators wanted to know our thoughts. In summary, we are trying to develop options that will appropriately cover the areas of early years, school-age after-school and special needs and will also meet the requirements of affordability, quality and accessibility. I am not suggesting that every option will cover or tick every one of those boxes. I suggest that a combination of those will, hopefully, produce a significant improvement and all of that clearly depends on investment. I have stressed from the beginning of the meeting, and in my opening statement, that the level and extent of investment is a matter for the Government to decide.

The registration of childminders is an area that we would like to look at in the context of the interdepartmental group. Clearly, there are a number of other quality issues that we are pursuing. Obviously we must prioritise issues of that kind. Certainly, as this is a quality issue, we would like to link the subventions to quality in each instance. I think that is an important way of doing things.

In terms of some of the questions that Senator van Turnout raised, I shall first refer to the question of joint inspections. I am conscious that there is Tusla, Pobal, the Department of Education and Skills and so on. I suppose in an ideal world, and perhaps at some future stage, we would have a situation where one would have one single common inspection. I am not going to pretend such development is easy or that it will happen quickly. At the moment we are focusing on making sure that there is good co-ordination between them. We have, for example, established a group that now meets to ensure there is good co-ordination and co-operation between the different forms of inspection. The last thing we want to do is impose an unnecessary administrative burden on any of the providers.

The capacity of the sector and the role played by the State is another issue that was raised by Senator van Turnhout and other speakers touched on the same subject. One of the things that we certainly wanted to do is get ourselves into a situation where we can develop a model of future needs. We can, for example, draw on the model that the Department of Education and Skills already uses for projecting places in primary schools and we will draw on that information. We are conscious, for example, that at a practical level, and as investment grows, if that is what the Government decides, and we create further incentives for more usage of these services then, inevitably, these measures will have a cost issue. Equally, they will have a capacity issue. It is true to say about 10% of children are in centre-based care. It is possible that as we develop this sector, improve quality, and if the Government decides that it can invest further, then obviously those aspects will have an implication for places and numbers. We must examine the matter very carefully.

In terms of commercial rates, I hear what Senator Colm Burke is saying. We will certainly take his comments into account. Obviously the rules relating to rates are outside the Department's jurisdiction but we will take account of the matter.

The Senator also mentioned the Life Centre in Cork. Certainly, if there is any area where centres or services are falling between the cracks then we need to pursue that. One possible option would be looking at funding from dormant accounts. Pobal is running such a scheme at the moment. I think the applications for the scheme are open but they will close in the next couple of weeks. It is an idea that is worth pursuing. Similarly, I think there is a role here for the youth strategy that we hope to finalise soon. In particular, there is an issue here in regard to transitions between different age groups and transitions between forms of education and care.

In terms of Deputy Conway's questions on Síolta and Aistear, we are extremely committed to helping the Department of Education and Skills to develop as much as we possibly can. The group will look at how best to roll out these schemes and continuing professional development is an important element. The whole area of professionalising and helping to professionalise the workforce is one that we are very much attached to. Again, it probably brings us back to the tensions that I talked about in my opening statement between achieving the right level of quality, affordability and accessibility. Sometimes it is difficult to achieve all three at the one time but we must strike the right balance.

In terms of some of the schemes such as CCS, TEC and others, I take the point that they can be time consuming and confusing. One additional point I would make is that the programmes implementation platform, PIP, will help us in terms of running the schemes and helping people to understand them. Certainly, if and when the Government decides that it is moving forward in terms of investment, we will take that aspect into account when designing what we put in place.

Let me check if there are other specific questions that should be raised. In regard to the early years strategy, I wish to put on record that we hope to have it done later this year. It is a significant priority for us.

In terms of the suggestion to have a national week dedicated to early years education, we would be happy to do anything we can in that regard, particularly to help parents understand and take on board the importance of quality as well as issues of affordability in this regard. I hope I have covered a reasonable number of the questions in that context.