Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 2 June 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality

Recommendations of the Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality: Discussion (Resumed)

Ms Frances Byrne:

I thank Deputy Hourigan for all of her engagement with my organisation. Yes, she missed an earlier intervention about AIM, which is a programme that she is aware of. The model is only available through ECCE and, therefore, is only available to a cohort of children albeit 98% of 3-year-olds avail of an ECCE place. The Department is very keen to look at the 2% who do not avail of ECCE and that certainly speaks to some of the issues that the Deputy has mentioned but also speaks to very marginalised children who are Traveller and Roma children. Our members are very conscious of the need to be involved in local interventions, which brings me to her last point. We have members who are informally involved in what might be described, and certainly would be so described in Nordic counties, as a family support framework. Our members attend case management meetings for children for whom there may well be State involvement already and-or it could be exactly what the Deputy has described around occupational therapy and so on. That work is done because there are great local people be they in State services or, dare I say it, among our membership or both. All of that work should be formalised and the First Five strategy, which is a national strategy, speaks to that.

We are very conscious that we have members who have delivered, particularly preschool education, since the 1950s and 1960s. Indeed, to be gendered again, we have a couple of members who are granddaughters running what was their grandmother's crèche. We also have many adult daughters who now run the crèche that belonged to their mother. These people always describe their work as a service and never as a business. Unfortunately, some of these facilities are physically very unsuitable for children who might have disabilities and our members are very conscious of that.

One of the great things that we saw happen during Covid, which the Department gave capital funding for, was the development of more outdoor spaces. When crèches first opened at the end of June parents were not allowed to physically set foot in a crèche for public health reasons. Our members, and we are delighted to share all of this on social media and beyond, with capital funding created amazing outdoor spaces for the handover and the handover is so important in terms of relationships and quality care for children. Of course, in circumstances where children had not been in a crèche for three or four months that handover was even more important. We urge that more focus is placed on outdoor spaces. Our members are very supportive of that and want to facilitate same so the Deputy is correct to identify outdoor spaces and it is a way to include all children of all abilities.

Another thing that she missed is that we really welcomed, in the context of partnership for the public good, the funding model report because it states that the AIM model should be extended, with which we agree, because there are parents who worry over the summer period. It is crazy that a child in a full daycare crèchehas his or her AIM support cut off when ECCE finishes in the morning. Such a situation does not make sense. When you say that to people from other countries they look at you as if you have lost the plot and we have not.

Finally, I wish to mention another important issue. A few years ago the Department commissioned a study on universal design on which we were very happy to work. We formed a consortium with other colleagues and then together the National Disability Authority and the Department commissioned the work. A copy of the report is available in hard copy and online. It is another moment when the sector was very proud that we led the way on universal design. One of the reasons we would like the five-year plan, the vision and description of the ultimate plan is capital funding would be described as well so that year one we will ensure, for example, that 70% of crèches have accessible outdoor spaces or become accessible internally or both. It is important that we offer certainty and a vision so that all children are included. I hope that I have addressed the questions posed by the Deputy.

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