Ms Frances Byrne:

Early Childhood Ireland warmly welcomes the opportunity to present to the committee today. As members have seen in our submission documents, our focus is on recommendations Nos. 8 and 9. These are focused on childcare and parental leave. With regard to childcare, the recommendations the Citizens' Assembly put before the Oireachtas were that over the next decade we would move to a publicly funded, accessible and regulated model of quality, affordable early years and out-of-hours childcare and increase the State share of GDP spent on childcare from the current 0.37% of GDP to at least 1% by no later than 2030. Having made a submission to the assembly, and appearing before it virtually during Covid, Early Childhood Ireland was very pleased to see these recommendations. We were also delighted to hear that the committee is endorsing them and this is very welcome.

As committee members know, Ireland remains a laggard in terms of investment in early years and school-age childcare. As with other issues, the Irish public and members of the Citizens' Assembly are ahead of policy makers in their recognition of the value of early years education and care. We have included in our submission document several graphs from the barometer we have produced annually for the past five years. It is based on independent nationwide opinion polling. A total of 80% of the Irish public believes that every child should have the right to high-quality accessible early years care and education.

The Government has committed to major transformation. This is very welcome. In this vein, last December it accepted the recommendations of an expert funding group. If these recommendations were fully implemented transformation would certainly be achieved. If the Government stays on track it may surpass its own commitments and the recommendation of the Citizens' Assembly well before the end of this decade.

According to the Citizens' Assembly report paid leave should cover the first year of a child’s life. It should also be non-transferable to encourage the sharing of childcare responsibility between parents in a two-parent family. For one-parent families, the Citizens' Assembly has recommended that they should be provided with the same total leave period as a couple. Paid leave should be incentivised by increasing payment levels to encourage increased take up. Early Childhood Ireland wholeheartedly supports these recommendations. They are in the best interests of children and their families. The Irish public also agrees, as borne out by our opinion polling. A total of 63% of the Irish public agrees that parents should be supported with leave to cover the first year of a child's life. While it is vital that these recommendations are prioritised it is also important to ensure that additional supports that families need in the first year of a baby's life are also provided, up to and including centre-based or home-based early years care. I can say more about this if members wish during the questions and answers.

If we could urge the committee to consider one recommendation in its focus on implementation, it would be that it assign to a specific Oireachtas committee the ongoing monitoring of the Citizens' Assembly's recommendation on public expenditure on early years and school-age care. The First 5 strategy recognises the inappropriateness of using gross domestic product as a measurement in Ireland as it includes the profits of multinational firms. They do not make or sell anything in Ireland despite being based in this country. As of now, it is the only measurement we have. If our proposal is accepted then as part of its deliberations a specific Oireachtas committee could also examine this issue. It would offer important political leadership on this crucial issue.

With renewed thanks to the committee for the invitation to appear before it today we hope that its important deliberations will return time again to the right of children to high-quality provision of what is, and should be valued as, an essential public good. The indicator that should matter most to us all is that every child in Ireland has equal access to quality and inclusive early years and school-age care services.