Ms Bernie McNally:

We accept that is a problem for the sector and, genuinely, we do not set out to have them spend all their time on paperwork. However, there are two reasons for much of the administration. One of these relates to regulation and regulatory requirements, which is coming from the perspective of child safety and child protection, so there is a certain amount they need to do. We have seen the impact that poor regulation has on children and families, so it is right that there is a strong regulatory regime. I note the draft programme for Government. The previous programme for Government looked to us to streamline various inspectorates and so on, and we will work on that. The second aspect of administration is associated with those services that are getting Government funding. If they are not running any Government schemes, there is not that much paperwork. If they are running our schemes, because they are in receipt of Exchequer funding, there are a certain number of rules attaching to that.

We are trying to lessen the burden. For example, the national childcare scheme is a more IT-based system and the burden for providers will be lower with that than it was for the old community childcare subvention and training and employment childcare schemes. That is one tangible example of what we are doing to try to reduce the workload on them. We have also given extra funding and, for example, we have given the programme support payments to recognise there are a lot of the administrative demands on provider. The system we used in the past, PIP, is going to be replaced over time with the more user-friendly Early Years Hive system. The latter will be easier for providers to operate.