Ms Teresa Heeney:

I thank the committee for inviting Early Childhood Ireland here today to discuss the pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the child care (amendment) Bill 2023. My name is Teresa Heeney. I am accompanied by my colleague, Ms Byrne, our director of policy.

Early Childhood Ireland is the leading advocacy and membership organisation, working in partnership with 3,900 members nationwide to achieve quality experiences for every child in early years and school age care settings. We advocate for an effective and inclusive early years and school age care system which values, supports and invests in childhood, children and services. We welcome the publication of this Bill and acknowledge that the Minister and the Department are putting children at the heart of this proposed legislation by making the best interests of the child the overriding principle.

Early Childhood Ireland holds an image of the competent child at the centre of all that we do. We work in partnership with our members, policymakers, academia, civil society and other stakeholders to achieve consistently high-quality experiences for every child in early years and school age care settings, both centre-based and in childminders’ homes.

Early years and school age care has changed significantly over the past 30 years. The number of children attending such settings has significantly increased and it is now the norm for many children and families in Ireland. In the years 2020 and 2021, almost 170,000 children participated in at least one of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth's funding programmes. The total number of early years and school age care services contracted to deliver at least one Department funding programme was over 4,500.

As both child participation rates and investment in this vital area increase, so too must our attention to the quality of early years, EY, and school age care, SAC, services. We acknowledge the work that has gone into the implementation of the Government’s First 5 strategy, which aims to provide robust regulation, inspection and quality assurance in the EY and SAC sector.

The enhanced enforcement and regulatory powers assigned to Tusla under the child care (amendment) Bill will ensure that early years and school age care services will operate in a more effective system, delivering child-centred leadership and consistently high-quality experiences for every child. While we understand that a single register for EY and SAC services is needed for ease of regulation and administration, we stress that these services are quite different as they cater for children of different age groups and needs. This must be recognised by Tusla when inspecting each service type and we fully expect that it will be.

Early Childhood Ireland welcomes any legislation that improves the quality of services and experiences of children in EY and SAC settings. One size does not fit all. For example, the current regulations relating to full day care services are not wholly appropriate for sessional or part-time services. We, therefore, ask the committee and policy makers to ensure that any new regulations are streamlined and service-appropriate to reduce the administrative burden for early years and school age service providers. We welcome the introduction of fit person regulations as it shows the seriousness and importance of the role of early years and school age care providers and educators. We suggest the regulations, when published, would be similar to the HIQA regulations where fitness is not a once-off assessment but is considered on an ongoing basis. Early Childhood Ireland welcomes the strengthened powers for Tusla to: immediately close an unregistered service; suspend the registration of a setting where it has reason to believe the service poses a risk to children; and allow it to share information with parents. Tusla’s powers will be greatly enhanced by putting immediate action notices and improvement notices on a legislative basis, ensuring that all children will be safeguarded and will benefit from child-centred and high-quality experiences in every early years and school age care setting.

I will make a brief comment on childminding. To ensure quality experiences for all children in all settings and to ensure that all parents can avail of public funding, we look forward to the publication of the childminding specific regulations as soon as possible and to the completion of the national action plan for childminding. We welcome the three-year transition period for childminders to adjust to the proposed childminding specific regulations when they are commenced. These regulations should prioritise the safety and well-being of children who attend childminders and we welcome the Garda vetting proposals for childminders and adults in the childminder’s household.

Early Childhood Ireland thanks the committee for inviting us to discuss the general scheme of this landmark Bill. We welcome any questions the committee may have.