Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will try to address Deputy Murnane O'Connor's questions. Affordability is essential and something on which we want to focus. The issue was raised on the doorstep at the last general election. As the Deputy knows, we are concluding a major piece of research on the funding model. Government policy, which will bind future Governments, has committed to a much greater and continued increase in investment in childcare. We will spend €638 million this year. That is a significant amount. We know that we must increase it, but we must also ensure that it is providing benefits, affordability and high-quality childcare that is accessible. Our funding model group, having looked at best practice around the world, will guide us in the best way for the State to ensure that this significant investment is delivering on these three objectives. The group is meant to report at the end of this year but I have asked that it bring forward some of its papers to this summer to inform me and my Department as we go into the Estimates process for 2022. I would like to begin some of this work in budget 2022.

Regarding quality, we all know that ensuring childcare professionals are well paid is important. That is why I was happy two weeks ago to write to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment asking it to create a joint labour committee, JLC, between employers and childcare professionals so as to start the process of setting a wage structure. We all understand that childcare professionals, who have always done amazing work, but particularly so during the pandemic, are not being paid enough. It is an almost entirely female workforce. We need to address this issue and the JLC would be an important step towards doing so.

Overall policy for schools falls under the Department of Education. However, my Department has engaged with Alcohol Action Ireland on its Operation Encompass project, which is one of the tools it uses to enhance awareness among children and young people of alcohol abuse and its links with domestic violence. That work is being led by the Department of Education but we have been engaging with it. It is an important issue. In particular, the link between alcohol abuse and domestic violence is one that we all understand well.

Providing ongoing funding for all domestic violence services is critical. In 2020 and 2021, Tusla allocated a specific fund to meet additional contingencies during Covid. In some places, this saw an additional workforce. Elsewhere, it involved IT upgrades as services moved online. It was used almost everywhere for PPE. In some places, it was used to pay for additional accommodation because existing accommodation units had to be reduced to allow for social distancing. I am aware of the case that the Deputy cited. The committee's Chairman, Deputy Funchion, and my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, are also well aware of it. My understanding is that work is ongoing at the highest levels within Tusla to resolve the case. We hope to see an engagement. Many Deputies have contacted me about this issue. I will continue listening carefully to service providers in the domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, DSGBV, sector, but my understanding is that there is a general degree of satisfaction with the 2021 budget allocation.

Like the Deputy, I am looking forward to the transfer of responsibility for disability services this year. I work closely with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. While taking on responsibility for disability services can create synergies where children are concerned, we will be taking responsibility for all disability services from children onwards. It is a big challenge and will double my Department's budget, but we are excited about getting involved in it.

Information and tracing are priorities for the Department. My officials and I had a good meeting with the Attorney General and his team on the legislation last week. We discussed what approaches could be taken. It will be the end of this month or early April when I bring to the Cabinet proposals for the heads of a Bill. Following the Cabinet's approval of those heads, we will bring them to the joint committee for pre-legislative scrutiny. Undoubtedly, all of the Deputies and their colleagues from the Seanad will engage in that. Subsequently, we will bring the Bill to the Dáil. It is a priority for me and I do not want to delay it in any way. We are taking a different approach to it. The drafting of the full heads of a Bill in just two or three months is ambitious but we will achieve it.

At the same time, we will continue working on the other 21 recommendations. I touched base with the team in my Department about a review of how we were getting on with each of the 22 recommendations. As the Deputy knows, the public consultation on the restorative recognition scheme will remain ongoing until 31 March. In that regard, we are trying to balance putting the consultation out to people and getting their views on what the scheme should deal with, while also moving quickly. As every member of this committee has stated, many of the people involved are of an age where they cannot wait a long time for a restorative recognition scheme to be devised.

For many years, Tusla was losing social workers year on year. In 2020, however, it had a net gain of 129 social workers. That is positive. The committee may have seen in recent days that Tusla announced a scheme whereby it would write to all of this year's graduating class offering to engage with them in advance of their graduation about potentially giving them interviews and jobs following registration. This is another example of how Tusla has seen that there is considerable demand for social workers in all areas. Tusla needs them and is taking active steps to try to secure as many of the graduating class as possible. However, we need more social work positions in third level institutions across the country. I have spoken to the relevant Minister, Deputy Harris, about this matter and will continue to engage with him.