Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As regards Deputy Troy's question, of course the child care committees have a role. They are working with providers and clearly have a role to play in ensuring that regulation 5 is effectively being met. They do work with inspectors; there is no question about that.

I do not expect that the implementation of Síolta and Aistear will lead to an increase in fees for parents. Irish parents already pay among the highest fees for child care. That is certainly not envisaged.

As Deputy Ó Ríordáin rightly pointed out, the sector needs support. The sector has been neglected, yet we give the care of our under-fives to workers who have terms and conditions such as he described. It is to their credit that despite those terms and conditions - which are as the Deputy outlined - so many of them give such a wonderful, professional service in providing high-quality care for children. What can we do to support them and ensure they remain in the sector? The way to do this is to support them in undertaking further training, which many of them are doing voluntarily at present. The mentoring scheme must also be developed. I have seen it in operation in the Deputy's own area. It is terrific to see Síolta and Aistear being supported in some services, but we need to support mentoring also. I am in discussion with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, about how we can roll out a mentoring support service to child care providers around the country. It is essential to give that kind of support to child care workers and to value the work they do. There is no doubt that parents also value that work. We must ensure, however, that the sector gets the kind of support that has been lacking up to now. They are doing such an important job with very young children, so they need training and support. Many of those workers are undertaking training voluntarily, but we need to encourage further training for them. By laying down those basic qualifications we can ensure that the sector is recognised more and more in a variety of ways.

The universal ECCE year is a great financial support to the services. It helps them to continue delivering the other services they also provide. If we were in a position to develop a second free school year it would be a major boost to the sector. Clearly, however, we will have to deal with these training and quality issues first before introducing a second year. It is my objective to introduce a second year once these quality issues have been dealt with. It would be a great support to parents, as well as doing the right thing for children. In addition, it would ensure that the sector would continue to develop to the highest possible standards.

As regards Deputy Harris's question, I have met with the Department of Education and Skills about the number of places that are available. The Department has undertaken to examine the quality and number of courses. If the Deputy can give me details of the particular courses he referred to which have capacity issues, I will undertake to have that matter examined.

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