Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this opportunity to discuss the importance of early learning and childcare. I support the Government's amendment. As public representatives and family members, we all know the importance of early learning and childcare. The early years are the most formative period in any child's life. Quality childcare is important in ensuring that parents and guardians can return to work if they wish. After both of my sons, I returned to work after eight weeks. I appreciated the value of good childcare. It is important. From this debate so far, it is clear that we are all agreed that reform is necessary. We need to reduce the cost for parents, improve pay and working conditions, reduce the regulatory and administrative burden on providers and ensure that children get the best possible start in life.

I wish to highlight the work of my party in developing a comprehensive report on the care of the child, focusing on parents, providers and staff, following an extensive consultation process. The report is in line with Government commitments and focuses on areas such as accessibility of services, affordability, support for providers, pay, training and apprenticeships.

The Government is not claiming there are not challenges in the sector, but rather that we have the strategy and drive to address those challenges and have already made significant progress. The introduction of the national childcare scheme in 2019 has gone a considerable way towards addressing the affordability of early learning and childcare. Most importantly, the number of families now eligible for support has been significantly increased and we are moving towards a progressive system of universal and income-based subsidies where eligibility is no longer based on medical card and social protection entitlements.

As the Minister of State with responsibility for special education, I am aware of the importance of inclusion of all children in early learning and childcare services. That is why I welcome in particular the work under way by the expert group to develop a DEIS-type model for early learning and childcare. This model will ensure greater levels of affordability, accessibility and quality.

The expert group's terms of reference also include improving pay and working conditions for early learning and childcare professionals. The Government accepts that the level of pay in the sector does not reflect the value of the work these professionals do for society. We have pledged to address this issue. The recent establishment of the joint labour committee, JLC, for the sector is a significant and welcome development.

The closure of services due to Covid-19 has brought home to us all how much we as a society rely on early learning and childcare to allow the economy and society to function and how valuable the sector is for children and their families, including the peace of mind it gives their parents. This is why the Government has implemented a substantial package of supports for the sector since March 2020. These have proven to be effective and have allowed services to continue operating safely in unprecedented times.

The excitement and happiness shown by children when returning to services in June 2020 demonstrated the importance to children and society of learning as well as care outside the home. The programme for Government sets out the best way to strengthen early learning and childcare, which is why I am supporting the amendment.

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