Ms Teresa Heeney:

A few months ago Early Childhood Ireland presented to the committee the report Doing the Sums: The Real Cost of Providing Childcare. I think it was included in its pack today. We engaged an accountancy firm to carry out an investigation into the cost of child care. I imagine that the information is quite similar to some of that the Department intends to gather to inform the affordable childcare scheme. One of the key findings in our report was that the issues of affordability, sustainability and quality were entirely interconnected. As we know and Senator Máire Devine has just said, if there is a high turnover of staff, it has huge implications for quality. The reason there is a high turnover of staff is 14% of staff in early years services are on 38-week contracts and required to go on the dole during the summer. While I accept that we are here to talk about the affordable childcare scheme, it has, as Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said, been calculated, costed and budgeted for on the basis of the minimum wage. Staff working in services are earning just over €11 per hour. If someone has a degree, he or she is likely to receive €1 more. That is the reality and the reason it forms an intrinsic part of this conversation. We cannot talk about the affordable childcare scheme without talking about the delivery mechanism. It must be recognised that parents and children are the beneficiaries, but they can only become the beneficiaries of the scheme if there are adequate staff and operators in the sector to deliver it for the Government. That is why it is a critical part of the conversation. Not talking about it is like the emperor having no clothes. In our document-----