Ms Amy McArdle:

I will address the question asked by Deputies Anne Rabbitte and Kathleen Funchion about the cost model to be used. The difficulty we see with it is that the current figures and model underpinning the affordable childcare scheme have been conceived on the flawed or inaccurate premise that the current financial models in the early years sector are working. We know that they are not on the basis of a report we produced entitled, Doing the Sums: The Real Cost of Providing Childcare - the committee has received a copy of the executive summary - as well as a report entitled, Breaking Point, produced by the South Dublin County Partnership, among others, that looked at sustainability in community settings. Unfortunately, the findings made in these reports have been referenced in support of the cost model the Department has used, but that is not what was intended. The message is very clear. We have found that the current financial models are helping to maintain the status quowhereby services, at best, break even - many are struggling even to do this - and highly professional staff are on low pay and employed on part-time and 38-week contracts.

There was a question from Deputy Ó Laoghaire as to whether this scheme had the potential to alleviate the numbers of staff drawing social welfare payments in the summer months. That will only happen if the funding is sufficient for staff to be maintained over a 52-week basis. Again, that depends on the funding that underlies the scheme.

Consideration needs to be given as to whether the scheme should be halted until the independent review takes place. It is extremely important. The success of the scheme will be hugely undermined and the survival of the sector will be called further into question if we do not get the cost model right from the start. What is really important about that independent review is that it actually states as part of the commitment in A Programme for Partnership Government that it will be consistent with the principle of ongoing professionalisation of the sector. As the committee probably knows, we are striving towards a graduate-led early years sector, with 60% by 2025. In a Pobal report on a survey of the early years sector, only 18% of early years educators have a level 7 qualification or higher and this is all related to staff pay, poor pay and poor conditions. The ability of the sector to retain and recruit staff is intrinsically linked to the pay and conditions in the sector. Ultimately the success is undermined if all of that is not addressed and dealt with from the outset.