The following motion was moved by Deputy Robert Troy on Tuesday, 10 February 2015:That Dáil Éireann:notes that: — child care provision in Ireland encompasses a mixed model of provision with services delivered through the community, private and public sector; there are approximately 4,300 child care centres in Ireland and approximately 23,000 staff work in the area; — quality early childhood care and education is paramount for positive development outcomes for children; — early childhood professionals play a vital role in supporting children and families at this foundation stage; and — underinvestment in the early childhood sector is leading to lack of long-term sustainability, varying levels of quality provision, a high cost to parents and poor working conditions for the early childhood workforce; further notes that: — there is no child care cost support-tax relief for working parents; — the cost of child care to parents is high with the annual cost of full-time child care for two children being €16,500 per year; — support for children with disabilities-special educational needs is limited and inconsistent across the country; — subsidised child care places are not equally accessible in all areas of the country; — capitation rates for delivering the early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme are insufficient for the majority of child care providers; — the early childhood workforce cannot access the learner fund for higher level qualification; — early childhood professionals are undervalued and under-resourced and have high employment insecurity; and — current child care funding policy is absent of any supports for working families who do not avail of the community child care subvention, CCS, programme; acknowledges that: — children with special educational needs face too many challenges to avail of a preschool education which is tailored to suit their individual needs; — mainstream early childhood services do not have appropriate funding or supports to provide equality of opportunity for children with special needs; — there is a lack of a nationally agreed pay scale and low levels of remuneration for the early childhood workforce; and — paid professional development opportunities are absent and the early childhood workforce is generally not paid for all of the work undertaken; and calls on the Government to: — introduce a child care tax break for working families; — provide a second full free preschool year for all children, particularly those with special needs; — reinstate 2011 levels of capitation with regard to the ECCE scheme with immediate effect as an interim measure; — increase investment from the current 0.4% to 0.7% on an incremental basis within the lifetime of the next Programme for Government; — extend the CCS programme to enable children to access the programme in private child care services; — publish and resource the early years strategy so that there is a blueprint for investment and policy development; — extend eligibility for the existing learner fund to include all staff to access higher level qualifications to support on building on the current graduate level workforce; — introduce an agreed national pay scale for child care workers; and — extend the ECCE capitation rate to cover statutory holiday pay, continual professional development and introduce an agreed national pay scale for child care workers.

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