Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As we heard earlier, many staff working in the early childhood education sector will be forced to sign on this week for the duration of the summer. Some even signed on last week. This is due to shorter work contracts and reduced hours of works, with which most workers do not have to contend. As we have heard, wages within this sector do not reflect the work that these heroes do each day. They are heroes who have given this State some service.

High-quality early childhood education and care is extremely beneficial to young children and provides a foundation for their education and development. As we all know, early intervention is essential and key for children with complex needs. I will give the example of Sesame Special Needs Preschool in Dungarvan in County Waterford. This is a community play group established especially for children with additional needs and it is the only centre of its kind in west Waterford. This facility caters for 42 children and employs six staff, one of whom is a nurse who works 30 hours per week. The children cared for at Sesame Special Needs Preschool have complex, intellectual special needs so this is a vital service for the children and their families. Each child in this facility is referred by the HSE. However, each child can only attend the centre for three hours, three days a week - a maximum of nine hours - due to a lack of funding.

Along with many others, this centre requires extra funding so that it will be able to take on more children for a longer period of time each day. Today I spoke with Eleanor, the manager, and asked her about her wish list. If she had one, what would it be? Her answer was one I am proud to put on the record of the Dáil. She would prefer extra funding to employ more staff so that each child could be offered in excess of the nine hours weekly. This would mean the parents - the full-time carers - could get an extra couple of hours respite. The other wish was that the preschool could offer the service year round but this is not possible due to funding. On Friday, 7 July, the Sesame Special Needs Preschool will close until 4 September. Why? It is not because of the school holidays but because there is not enough funding to pay the staff who will now sign on for a social protection payment when the preschool should be open next week offering these vital services that are required every week. This preschool is funded for 44 weeks per year so for the six weeks for which they are not funded, staff must sign on. Surely the budget is not so restrictive that these children with complex and profound disabilities could not be offered a year-round service. The nurse who works with these children for 30 hours per week is a fantastic young girl but the preschool knows they will going to lose her because she cannot get a mortgage or a loan to buy a car on 30 hours work per week for 44 weeks of the year. That is the reality. Those three hours respite per day were so important for parents dealing with children with complex needs 24-7. I commend Deputies Function and Ó Laoghaire for bringing such an important motion before the House.

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