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

As the Deputy will be aware, I went into detail on the approach taken in this matter in a Topical Issue debate on 26 November. Earlier this year I announced an eight point preschool quality agenda to address issues of quality in the preschool sector. As part of this agenda, I announced that from September 2015 all existing staff working in preschool services would be required to hold a qualification in early childhood care and education at FETAC level 5. Preschool leaders delivering the preschool year will be required to hold a qualification at FETAC level 6. The Child and Family Agency Bill 2013 which has passed all Stages in the Oireachtas provides a legal basis for the setting of minimum qualification requirements for all staff in the sector.

In budget 2014 I secured a total provision for next year of €4.5 million to support implementation of the preschool quality agenda. This includes an additional funding allocation of €1.5 million to support the training of existing staff to meet the new qualification requirements. It is intended that this training provision will be repeated in 2015, bringing the total provision to €3 million in the period 2014 to 2015.

The total number of existing child care staff who will need to have completed training by September 2015 is estimated at 3,000. My Department is currently putting arrangements in place for a new training programme over the period 2014 to 2015. Planning is under way for my Department, in association with Pobal, to publicly seek expressions of interest from accredited training providers who wish to provide FETAC level 5 or level 6 training under this initiative. It is likely that the city and county child care committees will play an important role in identifying qualifying staff and supporting them in accessing suitable training from the panel put in place through the expressions of interest process. I expect the full details, including detailed specifications, selection criteria and operational arrangements for the new initiative, to be finalised and announced in January 2014.

In addition to these plans, it was agreed with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform that €0.9 million in once-off savings available within my Department’s Vote in 2013 could be directed towards support for the training of preschool staff.

My Department agreed to increase the grant funding being provided in 2013 to Early Childhood Ireland and the Border Counties Childhood Network in return for the provision of additional accredited training to existing staff. The provision of training and high-quality supports has been a particular feature of the grant-aided work carried out by these bodies and both are accredited to deliver FETAC Level 5 training in early childhood care and education. The additional provision is included in their revised annual work plan agreed with the Department each year as a condition of their annual grant aid.

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I believe the approach taken has facilitated early progress in the important and ambitious objective of training more than 3,000 staff who must meet prescribed minimum qualification requirements by September 2015 if they are to continue to work in the sector. This early progress and the lessons from the pilot undertaken with two voluntary organisations that have existing grant agreements in place with my Department will be built upon in the new year when a range of providers will be invited to participate in the scheme in order to achieve the coverage necessary to train the full cohort of staff who require training over the next two years.

The level of grant aid made available to these voluntary organisations, which varies from year to year, is a matter for my Department to determine, having regard to key priorities and the availability of resources. These are traditional grant arrangements which are commonplace between the public sector and various national and local voluntary organisations across many sectors, including social services, education and vocational training.

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