Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I share the Deputy's commitment to ensuring that we have a well-paid workforce of childcare professionals. Improving access to high-quality and affordable early learning and childcare is a priority for me as Minister. I have spoken to both the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform about this on a number of occasions and our officials are engaging intensively to progress the matter. Children need and deserve the highest quality of early learning and care experiences and current staff turnover rates in the sector are unacceptable. The primary cause of the high turnover rates is the terms and conditions and it is critical that this be addressed. I am leading on a number of actions to find an effective and sustainable solution.

The State is not the direct employer of early learning and childcare practitioners and, therefore, neither my Department nor any other can set the wage levels. The Deputy will be aware that in the programme for Government, there is a commitment to the creation of a joint labour committee for the sector, which could offer a mechanism to create a pay agreement. My officials are actively working to progress this in collaboration with colleagues in other Departments, including that of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which has responsibility for this industrial relations mechanism. I have met representatives of SIPTU, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, and Childhood Services Ireland to discuss the issue of pay and the development of a potential joint labour committee. I hope that all the parties can continue to work together, that staff and employers will play lead roles in the process and that we can make progress in the coming weeks and months.

I am satisfied that work is also progressing on a new funding model, designed by the expert group. The model will be important to determine how, when we put significant State investment into childcare, we can ensure that one of the key deliverables is a well-paid early childcare workforce. I am happy to say the other element, the workforce development plan, is progressing rapidly. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is represented on both the expert group and the workforce development plan.

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