Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes, I am. I am trying to keep an eye on multiple committee proceedings so please forgive me for not being present in person in the committee room.

I welcome the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and commend them on the sustained progress and budget lines that they have secured for their Department. That is always a critical indicator of service capacity and delivery and, in that context, fair credit is due in terms of securing budget allocations.

I want to zone in on two points raised by the previous contributor, the early years childcare sector and residential placements for adults with disabilities. First, on the early years sector, it is abundantly clear, not just from the budget allocations but by any metrics, that very significant progress has been made in early childhood care and education. I often look at this as a kind of three-legged stool in that we have the parents and children who are receiving the care on one leg, the staff working there on another and then the service provider. I want to focus my question to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, on the service providers. They are generally a mix of the private sector and the community not-for-profit sector. I have raised this matter previously with officials from the Minister's Department. I am concerned about what I would categorise as the smaller private sector providers who generally tend to be both proprietors and people working at the coalface in terms of the delivery of early childhood care. Notwithstanding the words of comfort that the Minister delivered in response to a question by Deputy Sherlock, I am significantly concerned that there is going to be a very significant exodus of these small-scale service providers out of the early childhood sector.

These providers are both urban and rural. I represent a constituency that is substantially rural but has probably one of the biggest towns in County Cork within it. I come across these smaller, privately owned providers on a regular basis and the constant refrain is that they are drowning in administrative requirements. I welcome the fact there is ongoing engagement. It might well be the last straw that breaks the camel's back, but the increased reporting obligations recently communicated have driven many over the edge. That is a real tragedy in the context of the very substantial progress that has been made in the sector. Affordability for parents and the issue of retention of staff have been addressed, but this is a critical issue. It will be a tragedy and will impact in a myriad of different ways societally if we lose a substantial number of providers.

Has the Minister or his Department any handle on the likely exit from the sector of these smaller, privately owned providers and what specific comfort can he offer them? Something is required urgently to address their specific problems. The new funding model, welcome as it is in terms of increased funding, does not specifically give any comfort to them, particularly that cohort of smaller, privately owned providers who are delivering the ECCE-only model and not providing the full day-care service, who are particularly disadvantaged.

I will ask my second question and the Minister and Minister of State can then reply comprehensively. On the issue of residential placements for adults with disabilities, my experience is informed, like all of us in the House, by constituency representations and I deal with a myriad of organisations, from the HSE, which would be considered the State's own service provider, to organisations like CoAction, St. Joseph’s Foundation, the Brothers of Charity and Cope. Within all of the aforementioned, there is the good and the not-so-good, and some who were very good but have fallen from that perch. This is a problem that is quantifiable in terms of numbers, and it is quantifiable consequently in terms of the financial resources that are required to address it.

We are all aware of elderly couples living with their children with disabilities who are desperately concerned about what is going to happen at an undetermined point in the near future, when these elderly parents will no longer be in a position to deliver residential accommodation to their children. Is the model that we are pursuing - that of outsourcing it to the aforementioned organisations, including the HSE - the best model, or is there a better model available?

I do not have the answer but I am frustrated by the perceived lack of progress. I know the Minister will say that progress is being made incrementally but this is a quantifiable problem that we have not been able to solve yet and it is a stain on our collective endeavours. I would like to see accelerated progress but this raises the question of whether the model we are pursuing to deliver these residential opportunities is fit for purpose. If not, has any consideration been given to approaching the issue in a different way that is perhaps more community based or voluntary? I am not sure but I am frustrated by the lack of progress and the engagement with some of the service providers.