Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank everybody who contributed to this debate over the past couple of hours. The quality of the contributions leaves us in no doubt as to how deeply this issue resonates within all of us. There appears to be general consensus as to the kind of quality child care services we want to see in place.

We all know the destination we want to reach. Where we differ is the journey we must embark upon to reach it. Deputy Calleary remarked that this is the first time we have debated this issue in the House since the formation of the new Government. Equally, it is the first time that any Member has had the opportunity to address the issue to a Cabinet member. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has been appointed to the role to work tirelessly and vigorously to further this particular agenda in Government. In her opening remarks, the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, detailed the many actions that the Government has taken in respect of early childhood care and education. Despite the difficult economic situation the Government faced on coming into office, the universal preschool year has been maintained and the child care schemes targeted at low income parents have been expanded. This has been a significant achievement and one of which we are rightly proud.

More important, budget 2014 included funding for several quality measures to further support the early years sector. The focus of this motion and of some of the contributions of speakers has been on parents and costs. However, it is essential to remember that the primary focus of early childhood provision should be the children. All the available evidence indicates that it is the quality of the child care provision which is the key to good outcomes for children, whether it is delivered by service providers or parents. For far too long the focus of child care policy was on bricks and mortar and the physical environment in which children are cared for. Members will be aware that up to the start of the last decade, Ireland's early years sector was almost non-existent. The Celtic tiger years saw a scramble to put services in place in response to the ever-increasing rate of female participation in the labour market and a corresponding demand for child care service provision. Unfortunately, this resulted in a wholly inadequate approach to quality and sustainability. In response to the issue, the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, announced a quality agenda for early years services which sets out several key reforms with the objective of improving the quality of early childhood care and education services.

Legislative amendments to Part VII of the Child Care Act 1991 have been passed by the Oireachtas as part of the Child and Family Agency Act 2013, and this will underpin broader reforms. The objectives are to strengthen the current inspection regime, provide a statutory basis for registration of early years services and provide for the setting of minimum qualification standards for staff working directly with children in these services. To provide for the implementation of the changes to the Act, it will be necessary to amend or make additions to the current regulations in several areas, and this is being considered.

The new regulations will be accompanied by new national quality standards, and together they will form the basis against which services will be inspected by the early years inspectorate of the Child and Family Agency. The standards will set out the outcomes for quality as well as supporting criteria against which the compliance level of a service will be measured. Inspection under the new regulations and standards will commence as early as practicable following the development of new inspection tools and guidelines. In advance of the introduction of the new regulations, a communications exercise will be undertaken to ensure early years service providers fully understand the impact of the changes to the way they will be inspected.

A new system of registration has been introduced, and anyone proposing to open a new child care service must first be registered with the early years inspectorate before they begin to operate. The registration and inspection system will allow inspectors to specify improvement conditions with which a service must comply. This system will provide for the first time for timely and effective regulation and enforcement of standards in early years services. Information relating to the inspection and registration system is available on the Child and Family Agency website, www.tusla.ie.

International evidence shows a clear connection between the qualifications of staff working with children and the quality of their care and educational provision. Up to now there has been a cultural view in Ireland that looking after children does not require any particular skill set. We must move away from this idea and understand that, as with older children, young children need to have trained and qualified staff working with them.

For this reason the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, has indicated her intention to introduce a new requirement that all staff caring for children in an early years service hold a minimum qualification at Further Education and Training Awards Council level 5. In addition, the minimum requirement of FETAC level 5 currently in place for preschool leaders delivering the preschool year programme will be increased to level 6. The new requirements will apply from September 2014 for new services and from September 2015 for existing services. To support existing staff to obtain the necessary qualifications, the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, has said she expects to announce shortly the details of a new subsidised training programme, and funding of €3 million is being allocated to support this initiative.

As the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, has announced-----

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