Ms Karen O'Sullivan:

Sustainability varies and depends on whether a facility is located in a suburb or a rural area and whether the area is disadvantaged or is a very small rural area that has a small number of families. We support financial and governance sustainability. Sustainability is dependent on a well-run service. We are very involved in working with community services through their directors and management.

The reliance on community employment, CE, came from a study conducted by the city and county child care committees, CCCs. There were murmurs of an over-reliance on CE schemes and people said there was an over-reliance on CE throughout the country. All the committees reviewed every service in their area to assess that reliance. The services that were identified were then put forward for in-depth and intensive supports, which included many services in Cork city, some of my services and services located throughout the country.

In terms of providing enough funding to employ staff immediately to replace CE participants, the reason CE staff must be replaced is because they are not qualified and child care staff must now have attained a minimum child care qualification. Therefore, CE workers could no longer be considered part of the adult-child ratio. Services were initially given funding to employ staff to replace CE workers directly. We worked closely with the services to assess how much money they needed to tide them over for the next year, which involved the phase 2 transition funding. Where things go from there is another matter. We are still working with the Department. We are still adding to how the Department considers CE reliance and supports community services. A sum of €1 million has been identified as enough to cover the cost of transition funding for the year. We are hopeful we can influence what happens next, particularly in terms of the affordable child care scheme. The rates for children and families who are more vulnerable and disadvantaged have been adjusted and increased. We hope the initiative will support the sustainable services that work, in particular with vulnerable families.

Deputy Neville mentioned the sustainability of services with older owners who do not have the requisite qualifications. The Department introduced a grandfather clause or, more appropriately, a grandparenting declaration. It means that people who have been involved in the sector for a long time, who were possibly in the latter part of their career and who could not take the time to pursue a formal qualification are allowed to work in the sector until 2020-2021 without a requirement to take on the qualification. Their years of skills and experience have been recognised. The provision was put in place to facilitate anyone who was not in a position to upskill. I believe I have covered all the sustainability questions. Please correct me if I have missed any question.