Dr. Mary Moloney:

I thank the committee for the invitation to address it in my capacity as chairperson of Pedagogy, Learning and Education, PLÉ, which is the national association of higher education institutions offering degree level education and training in early childhood education and care. PLÉ represents 18 higher education institutions offering 27 early childhood education and care degree programmes.

The association advocates on behalf of approximately 5,500 early childhood education and care degree level students and graduates in Ireland.

The issues of affordability, quality and supply in the early childhood sector have dominated political debate for quite a long time. As we all know, affordability is particularly problematic and I welcome the opportunity to explain why the cost of child care in Ireland is frequently referred to as a second mortgage. It is now widely recognised that Irish parents pay the highest child care costs in Europe. Typically, parents in Ireland pay 35% of net income, and for lone parents the figure is closer to 40% of net income. Throughout OECD countries, the average cost of child care is between 10% and 13% of net income.

In spite of the high cost to parents in Ireland, the quality of provision is diverse and sporadic, and those working in the sector are underpaid and undervalued. I will address the issue of training, qualifications and remuneration, all of which are necessary components in the provision of high quality education and care to young children from birth to school age. To do this, I will use three perspectives, namely, historical Government investment, the skills and competencies required by our educators, and the settings' perspective and their challenges.

Since the inception of the Child Care Act 1991, myriad policies and initiatives have been developed, culminating in two practice frameworks, namely, Síolta and Aistear, to support and enhance the quality of early childhood provision. In addition to this, the State invested €1.139 billion in the period from 2000 to 2010 in the development of a child care infrastructure, primarily in the creation of child care places. This investment, however, was a supply side measure driven by the need to capitalise child care places for children working parents, and over the decade many commentators have pointed out that the much needed parallel investment in staffing did not occur.

In the aftermath of the RTE "Prime Time" exposé in 2013 of bad practice in some early childhood settings, the then Minister, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, acknowledged there had been a wholly inadequate approach to quality sustainability. The sector has, in effect, been provided with extremely limited funding for developing staff quality, that is, high-level training and commensurate pay levels, with the Government investing just 0.2% of GDP. In 2008, UNICEF recommended this figure should be 0.7% and the OECD has repeatedly recommended that it should be 1%. As a result, many early childhood educators are ill-equipped to engage with initiatives such as the two quality frameworks, Síolta and Aistear, which are the pillars of quality in child care in Ireland. They leave little doubt the education and care of young children is highly skilled and complex. Regardless of the complexity of educating and caring for young children, the need for staff qualifications has for too long been overshadowed by the rush to create child care places.

Although definitions of quality vary, it is recognised that the ability of educators to care for, nurture and teach young children is strongly influenced by their level of education and training, their work environment, salary and work benefits as well as their experience in the field. The need for appropriate training and qualifications is finally being recognised in Ireland, as evidenced by the recent introduction of a mandatory minimum training requirement for all staff working in the early childhood sector. Settings engaging in the early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme have also been incentivised to employ early childhood graduates. While these requirements are positive steps in the right direction, PLÉ believes that on their own they are insufficient to address the many issues endemic in the sector.

I wish to draw the committee's attention to the model framework for education, training and professional development which was developed by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in 2002. This framework identified five occupational profiles which have since been validated against a national framework of qualifications and the practice frameworks, Síolta and Aistear. Committee members will have seen table one, which I submitted. This provides an overview of the matches decided relating to the occupational profiles and National Framework of Qualification, NFQ, levels as well as the attributes, skills, processes and accountability identified for each level in the model framework.

It is worrying that in 2013 Pobal reported that only 12.8% of educators working in the sector in Ireland holds a degree at level 7 or 8 in early childhood education and care.

Addressing the annual Maynooth university education forum on the theme of educational disadvantage recently, Professor Kathy Sylva asserted that a characteristic of a high-quality preschool was having "teachers", her word, trained to degree standard, which in Ireland is a level 8 qualification. Ireland does not have a vision or a target for the number of graduates who should work in the early childhood sector, and the present 12.8% reported by Pobal is far below the EU 2011 recommendation that at least 20% of the workforce be trained to degree level.

Currently, of the 25,000-strong early childhood workforce in Ireland, only 3,200 educators are working at advanced or expert practitioner level as envisaged in the model framework. Advanced or expert practitioner levels require the broadest range of skills and competencies, as outlined in table 1. In fact, PLÉ argues that advanced and expert practitioners are required to engage meaningfully with the Aistearand Síolta frameworks. Goodbody Economic Consultants, for example, in its evaluation of an initial implementation of the Síolta quality assurance programme in 134 services between 2009 and 2010, found that staff education and training levels impeded educators’ ability to engage with and implement the Síolta framework. PLÉ asserts that the implementation of Síolta and Aistearand the present Childcare (Pre-school Services) (No. 2) Regulations 2006 require the following knowledge, competencies and skills: knowledge of play, child development, early childhood curriculums, teaching and learning strategies for young children, child health, working with families and communities, oral language and communication development, second language acquisition, child psychology, special educational needs, cultural diversity and inclusion, and national policies and priorities; competencies in child observation, communication at multiple levels, reflection, curriculum planning, implementation and evaluation, in addition to report writing, curriculum differentiation, development of individual education plans for children with specific needs, empathy, creativity and team work; and skills including engaging in, supporting and facilitating children’s play, storytelling, creativity, nappy changing, feeding, checking temperatures and sleeping positions and administering medication. As we move to an evidence-informed profession - that is, based on evidence gathered through research - educators need to understand the various research processes, be skilled as social researchers and also be able to make sense of research-based articles and research reports.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it does provide insight to the complexity of the work and the challenges associated with quality in early childhood. It is not possible that programmes pitched at FETAC levels 5 and 6 would cover all of the areas outlined, nor should they be expected to. Rather, these programmes provide a basic foundation and introduction to the fundamental aspects of early childhood education and care. They do not prepare students for the depth and breadth of experiences required in early childhood settings, as envisaged within the Síolta and Aistearframeworks. However, all of the areas outlined can be expanded upon incrementally in a three-year and four-year degree in early childhood education and care. PLÉ asserts that degree-level programmes with a strong practicum component can adequately prepare early childhood educators to support children’s educational development and equip educators to become curriculum and pedagogical experts in early childhood education and care.

Degree programmes are also designed to prepare graduates to become reflective, thereby increasing the chances of producing educators who are committed to ongoing learning and professional development. Additionally, in time, such graduates may also be well placed to mentor, induct and support colleagues within the sector, creating a community of practice leading to enhanced quality and benefiting children in their experiences of early childhood education and care. This could potentially complement the Better Start mentoring service currently working within the sector.

The issue of the poor remuneration levels in the sector has been well documented and presented to the House previously, and various reports have pegged salaries at minimum wage levels. Working conditions and poor pay are undoubtedly a factor in the quality of early childhood provision, and to this end, there is increasing evidence that highly skilled graduates are being lost to the sector. In the fourth quarter of 2012, the average industrial wage in Ireland, according to the Central Statistics Office, rose to €828.88 per week.

Just last week, I interviewed a number of early childhood managers who informed me that there is no difference in the salaries payable to educators qualified to QQI level 5 and those with a level 8 honours degree. These managers told me that the rate of pay for an educator is generally €9 per hour and if one is lucky it is €10 per hour. When we did the calculations, we found this was less than half the industrial wage.

Managers who hold a level 8 honours degree stated that they earn between €12 and €14 per hour, which is also far removed from the average industrial wage of €828.88 per week. One manager advised that after working in the sector for five years, she is seriously considering exiting the sector to work in a factory or a shop, anywhere she can earn more money, because as she explained to me, "I want to get a mortgage, to have a life".

I recently analysed data from the 2014 annual occupational profile study undertaken with the graduates in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. The findings make for disturbing reading and endorse the view that educators are undervalued and underpaid, with a pervading sense that the work is not something people can continue to do in the long term and that the conditions are terrible, in the words of a graduate. One graduate described how she was back living at home with her parents because there was no way she could afford to pay rent or bills on her salary. These stories are replicated all over Ireland as those working in the sector find it difficult to live independently, to secure a car loan or procure a mortgage. Crucially, there is no reward for obtaining a degree in early childhood education and care, and with the exception of the ECCE scheme which requires a minimum of a level 6 qualification, there is no incentive for existing educators in the field to upskill to higher level qualifications.

The recruitment of early childhood graduates to the Better Start mentoring service and the Department of Education and Skills early years inspectorate is a welcome development that, for the first time in the history of early childhood education and care in Ireland, provides pay parity with other professionals working with young children, as well as validating the value of degree level training and experience in the field. The recently established Low Pay Commission is examining the possibility of introducing a living wage of €11.45 per hour, which it deems to be the income below which it is impossible to make ends meet. Research consistently indicates that irrespective of qualification levels, those working in the early childhood sector do not earn a living wage. In response to repeated calls for Government intervention, the Government insists that remuneration levels and conditions of employment are ultimately matters for the management of settings, while at the same time expressing concern that tax credits for parents, for example, will result in increased child care fees.

This is indeed a double-edged sword, and presents a considerable conundrum for the sector. Salaries represent between 70% and 80% of the income of an early childhood setting. The remaining 20% to 30% of income must cover all the overheads associated with operating the setting including rates, mortgage, insurance, maintenance, equipment and materials, food and beverages and so on. Parents are hard pressed to pay current child care fees, and there is evidence that some are left with no option but to leave their employment when a second child arrives. Equally, child care managers cannot afford to pay salary increases. Any such increase would warrant a significant increase in child care fees. In the current climate, primarily as a result of inadequate investment and poor planning, considerable numbers of early childhood settings are finding that they are no longer sustainable and are closing their doors.

A recent study by Early Childhood Ireland suggests that almost 10% of services will cease to operate in September 2015, while a study undertaken by Meehan Tully & Associates limited on behalf of the Dublin City Childcare Committee points to unsustainable small scale profit margins across five child care funding models. The committee has received a copy of my statement. I would like to conclude by saying that I have discussed issues in regard to training, qualifications and remuneration, all of which are necessary components in the provision of high quality care and education to young children from birth to school age. It is just and necessary that educators working with children before they start school in Ireland are recognised as professionals and are appropriately remunerated in the same manner as professionals working with school-age children in the formal education sector.