Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 December 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

Insurance Cover for Crèches: Discussion

Photo of Katherine ZapponeKatherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Chairman asked an excellent question about what efforts were being made to attract other providers. I would answer that in two ways. My Department has been in regular contact with the broker that was handling the negotiations and we understand some of the issues with which he has been working. Even as the days pass, other information arises and we are in direct contact with one or two providers that may have access to another insurance operator. We are having those conversations. We will examine information specific to the childcare sector in other jurisdictions. We will consider the question of attracting other operators with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, the Minister of State, Deputy D'Arcy, and their officials, given that that is where this issue large resides. We will provide input based on what we know. We will also get more information from our providers regarding their 2020 insurance costs. No one knows all of that information, so we will be asking that question. The public sector profile, which I launched yesterday or the day before, will be included. We have a great deal of information on 2018 from the independent review of costs. We are gathering relevant information and will be working with the Department of Finance.

The Chairman asked what would happen to the highest risk providers if they could not get insurance. That is an excellent question. I would ask them to get in touch with Pobal and us in order to determine what may be the reasons for that and the ways we might be able to support them. Some of the reasons might be beyond our control, but we will find ways to ascertain that.