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

What I am saying is that in the context of the model we have, I have done some significant things in order to encourage improvements in pay and conditions for childcare professionals and I need the co-operation of employers and providers. It is not that nothing is happening; things are happening. However, as Deputy Mitchell points out, we can only do so much within the context of that model. I have been doing two other things. Deputy Mitchell asked whether I have sat down with the unions. Yes, I have and I have also sat down with a working group on which unions are also represented in terms of the wider employment forum set up by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. In particular, we are looking at a sectoral employment order. We still do not have enough workers signed up with regard to the union to make that a possibility. I have been speaking with organisations representing the employers sector. They have not moved to the point where they can take part in that sectoral employment order but I have been encouraging and speaking to them. In regard to First 5, which I might get time to discuss in the context of another question, there is a description of the vision of the public funding model we want to move towards that brings us to a different type of model that I hope will do more to get us there than what we have done in the past.

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