Mr. Joe Rynn:

I thank the Chairman and committee members for the invitation to address the committee in my capacity as chairperson of Childcare Committees Ireland. As the Chairman noted, I am joined this morning by my colleague, Avril McMonagle, who herself is one of six regional manager representatives of our national network of the 30 city and county child care committees. We welcome the opportunity to bring forward our views on some of the challenges of the early years sector and, in particular, bring a local perspective, given our local and county delivery structure. The 30 city and county child committees operate across the country and were established in 2001 to advance the provision of child care facilities in their local areas. City and county child committees, CCCs, offer a wide variety of services locally to early years services, childminders, after-school services and parents. The 30 city and county child care committees operate in each of the local authority administrative areas and are governed by a voluntary board of management. This board includes representatives from the early years sector and agencies within that area, including local authorities, State agencies, local development companies and voluntary child care organisations.

The functions and roles of the committees are aligned to support the implementation of national policy at a local level. In addition, we play a key co-ordinating role and are actively involved in various co-ordinating bodies to support the delivery of supports to children and families. This includes children and young people services committees, as well as local community development committees. As the established local delivery structure for the early years, CCCs play a crucial role in supporting the development of the early years sector in each county, responding to local needs and implementing comprehensive support plans to address these needs. This has been a core function of the CCCs since their establishment. Over the past 15 years, the CCCs have been at the centre of these supports and development within the sector.

Such development goes back as far as 2000 and over the decade 2002-2010, the State itself, initially in partnership with the European Union, invested more than €425 million in capital funding to create child care places throughout Ireland. That was probably the start of the major investment programme in Ireland for the early years sector. From 2006 to 2010, we had a follow-on programme, the national child care investment programme, NCIP, which was the State's vehicle for wider investment in the sector and, as I stated, the NCIP succeeded and built upon the programme known as the equal opportunities child care programme, which was the initial programme put in place between 2000 and 2006. I refer to these programmes because it is important to see the context for the funding and in the first instance, they provided capital funding, staffing grants and quality programmes. The programmes aimed to provide a proactive response to the development of quality child care supports and services, which are planned and developed locally and centred on the needs of the child and the family. Over that period, the CCCs, working with the sector, put in place 65,000 child care places in the early childhood sector.

Since then, the role of the CCCs has expanded to enable greater flexibility and responsiveness to local needs. More recently, CCCs have been increasingly dedicated to locally managing administrative processes associated with the various national funded programmes. The recognition and value of their work are evaluated on a yearly basis and the most recently published report completed nationally showed that 95% of services report a high satisfaction rating in respect of the support provided to them by the CCCs. The value of a local delivery agent working with the sector is an important building block for the sector and remains so. Indeed, the efficiency and value for money delivered by this structure shows that of the approximately €260 million invested in the sector, currently the CCCs account for 4% of this budget and for this, a national delivery structure is in place across all counties in Ireland. The CCCs remain focused on responding to the local need but, equally, very responsive to the implementation of a range of national programmes on a consistent basis. For example, we have assumed responsibility from Tusla for the roll-out of the Always Children First child protection training for early years settings and childminders with the stated aim of ensuring that staff members from every service throughout the country receive accredited child protection training. The roll-out of this training is co-ordinated at local and county level by CCCs.

To date, more than 3,605 services have accessed that training, with more than 6,459 practitioners receiving that training. This approach has been strengthened by our national network, which we are representing. This national network provides a coherent structure for various bodies, in particular, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, to plan and implement its policy brief. CCI, as the national network, works closely with a range of stakeholders to ensure we put in place strong, effective systems with our partners. These include Pobal, the National Early Years Quality Development Service also known as Better Start, the Departments of Children and Youth Affairs and Social Protection and Tusla.

It is important to recognise that the early years sector and, in particular, the role of the State within it, is still relatively new in Ireland. The primary school education system has been in place since the State was established and dates back to 1931 while free post-primary education has been in existence since 1966. The early years sector in Ireland is still in the early stages of development with the introduction of the free preschool year in 2009. This was an important milestone and an important step in the provision of universal early childhood care and education. It is important to recognise that was the first universally recognised programme the State had put in place. Prior to that, there was no universal provision. It is, therefore, still early in terms of the State's role.

The introduction of the free preschool year has brought with it significant changes which the sector has adopted and worked with. Committee members will be aware of these, with some having been elaborated on in previous presentations. However, we would like to give an overview of some of these challenges and how they can be addressed. My colleague, Ms McMonagle, will elaborate on them, particular policy issues in which we are engaged, and the future support priorities the sector requires.