Mr. Toby Wolfe:

I totally agree with the Deputy on recognising the concerns many childminders have. This is a sector that has been almost entirely unregulated and unsupported, in many cases, for many years. There is understandable fear and anxiety among childminders when they are looking at the prospect of regulation coming in. The National Action Plan for Childminding (2021 - 2028) made very clear what will come in will be a regulatory framework that is proportionate, appropriate and specific to childminders. There will be childminder-specific regulations and they are being drafted at the moment. I will come to the Deputy's question on the timing, but there will be those tailored regulations and there will be training, but it will be tailored to childminders, so it is very much a bespoke response recognising the challenges they face.

The public consultation on the draft regulations will commence in the coming weeks. We have draft regulations that are nearly ready. We will go for public consultation. It will be an extended consultation period. One of the reasons it is taking time to design the consultation is we want to ensure we have a process that allows us to reach a lot of childminders we have not spoken to before to give people a chance to really listen and engage. The Deputy asked about the engagement process. The national action plan itself followed from an extended period of consultation that went right back to 2016, when a working group was first established. Childminding Ireland was asked by the then Minister to chair that working group and the group developed a blueprint that was published, with a draft childminding action plan being developed on the basis of that blueprint. There was public consultation on that with substantial engagement with childminders and that led to the childminding action plan. The action plan itself embodied a lot of childminders' perspectives and parents also fed into the consultation process in significant numbers.

Even since then an advisory group was set up to help with the process of drafting the regulations and there are childminders sitting on that group, going through the draft regulations line by line. The steering group they report too, which is going to be signing off on the draft childminding regulations that go for public consultations, also has childminders sitting on it. Childminding Ireland, as a representative body, is also on our steering group and we are moving slowly and carefully. When the Minister published the childminding action plan, he was very clear it should be a phased approach with time given to ensure we get it right in this planning phase we are in, so the regulations are proportionate and appropriate and that when we move into opening up the regulations, there will be a transition phase. As to the detail of that, it is proposed in the legislative amendment that went through pre-legislative scrutiny in the summer that there will be a three-year period during which the regulations will be optional, if you like, in that childminders will be able, but not required, to register. That will give time to adjust and get used to the regulations when they are in place. It will also be a period in which extra supports will be provided.

We have been strengthening the childminding development officer network so that by next year, there will be a childminding development officer in every city and county childcare committee providing local level support to childminders to help them meet those proportionate and appropriate requirements that will be in place. Childminding Ireland itself is funded by the Department and provides significant supports to the childminding sector as well. We recognise those supports will be needed to help childminders meet the changes. We think there are many benefits childminders will gain from this.