Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Picking up on the question from Deputy Murnane O'Connor concerning the number of childminders involved in developing the action plan in respect of the various working groups, we saw from the presentations that the answer was that the number was small to non-existent. One recommendation this committee can certainly make, therefore, is that if the Minister is making decisions concerning a particular sector, it is important there be extensive consultation with representatives from that sector. Turning to a point raised already, I am conscious of the informal nature of some childminding services. We can see the major differences in the numbers between the estimates of how many childminders there are, how many are registered with Tusla and how many engage with the various organisations represented here today.

I am also concerned that if we rush any attempt to regulate this area and we get it wrong, the ultimate consequence will be to drive childminders out of the sector. People will just not mind children. As someone who has experienced crèche fees going up recently, that is not a good outcome for anyone and especially not for the children benefiting from these services now. One of the ways to carry out a process such as this properly is to include the groups about to be regulated. Equally, it is important to reach out to people. The points made about the difficulty with engagement, the lack of it and its informal nature have been raised several times in several ways.

What I would love to hear from the witnesses is how we should reach out to childminders, the people we want to reach. If there are estimated to be 15,000 childminders, of whom 4,000 are linked with Childminding Ireland and only 80 linked with Tusla, how do we reach all of them?