Dr. Anne-Marie Brooks:

What I would say in relation to the returns and the fact that the programme date runs from September to August, is that we are mirroring the approach taken by the financial support services unit, FSSU, for schools. Schools have the same reporting requirement and operate within the same reporting calendar as well and have done so for a number of years. We have taken lessons from that approach in designing our own process and the chart of accounts. We accept that there are challenges and additional administration that State funding brings to early learning and childcare providers. The State is now the primary funder of these services. In many instances, the State fully funds services. Approximately one in three services is fully funded by the State and a very large share of the remainder get the majority of their funding from the State. We have obligations to ensure that funding is used for its intended purposes and that there is transparency in relation to its allocation. It is also really important - in the context of issues raised today where services are expressing concerns around viability and are challenged - that we have those data available to us so we can make good decisions in relation to the allocation of funding and how we can address the challenges that are faced by those working in the sector.

My colleague, Mr. Doheny, described earlier some of the steps we are going to take to try to ease administration and simplify our processes. The Minister has committed to an action plan on administrative and regulatory simplification and that work is under way. We have a team in the division who are leading on that and we are seeking expressions of interest for an adviser group made up of parent and stakeholder representatives. We will be undertaking regional consultations with providers and others who have a view on this. Work is under way with a third party to review our end-to-end processes around the schemes and that will culminate in an action plan which we hope will identify short, medium and more long-term actions that we can take to ease the administrative and regulatory burden faced by providers.