Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this debate on the important issues around the early learning and childcare sector. I am acutely aware of the challenges facing many parents, childhood professionals, childcare providers and childminders. There is an immediate need for a major reprioritisation of early childhood in our national ambitions. Its importance must be embedded in the goals of the Government and the strategy statement of every Department.

I welcome the programme for Government commitment with regard to continued investment in the national childcare scheme, reducing the costs for parents and introducing greater parental choice and flexibility, and to reform of the childcare systems to create one that brings together the best of community and private childcare provision. I have engaged locally with childcare workers. Time and again, they have highlighted the issues they face and their needs which must be met head-on without delay.

I call on the Minister to support childcare workers in the challenges they face and to respond in a meaningful manner to recognise their qualifications and the important and enormous contribution they make to our society. Their professionalism came to the fore in the worst of the pandemic to ensure our essential front-line workers could work to protect our families. I acknowledge the published research which indicates that workers employed in the early care sector in Ireland are paid less than their counterparts in other countries. Early years professionals are struggling to make ends meet. This is driving them out of the profession they love dearly and leading to a huge issue for childcare providers in finding staff.

The contributors to the Fine Gael policy lab on the care of the child told us that the care of the child should be embedded in the strategy of all Departments and form an essential pillar in our national, social, economic, cultural and spatial strategy. This must be represented in a major policy shift. I hope the Minister will make good on his earlier promise to address the issues of low pay in the early years sector, accessibility and affordability for parents and pay and conditions for staff while also protecting the sustainability of providers.

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