Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her question. The child care regulations introduced for newly-registering preschool services on 30 June 2016, and for existing services on 31 December 2016, require all staff working directly with children to have at least a major award at level 5 on the national qualifications framework in early childhood care and education or a qualification deemed by the Minister to be equivalent. As the Deputy will be aware, this regulation has been extensively welcomed as being in the best interests of children.

I recognise, however, the impact increased regulation is having on community settings – from my own experience, from a number of meetings I have had with providers and representative groups and from the early years forum I established to ensure that providers’ voices are heard. In 2017, I provided for €1 million of additional funding to be made available to child care providers who have been facilitating the training of community employment participants to ensure that regulatory changes do not impact on service delivery or the availability of child care places. Officials have been working with Pobal and Childcare Committees Ireland to get funding out to services affected by the change in respect of community employment scheme participants and I understand that contracts to enable payment have now issued to services. Funds will be disbursed without delay once these contracts are signed. Funding will be provided in two phases, the first of which is to cover advertising and recruitment costs, while the second will follow more detailed financial analysis of services in the coming weeks.

In addition, funding of €14.5 million will be made available for the first time in 2017 for non-contact time to recognise the increasing volume of work done outside of direct contact hours with children.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

The sector has taken the initiative of commissioning and completing research highlighting the challenges that they face and I am acutely aware that we need to get the funding model right for these services. This is a complex issue and I hope that providers will appreciate that we have had to move to tackle the most urgent issues first, designing a new model of eligibility for families - the affordable childcare scheme, tackling the community employment scheme issue, and providing funding for non-contact time for the first time. I remain committed to addressing other sustainability and quality issues, particularly in disadvantaged areas. The last two budgets delivered a 35% increase each year in funding for child care. However, it is recognised that there is a need to continue to invest and a strong case will be put forward for more resources in 2018 and beyond.

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