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

I thank the Deputy. I am conscious of the need for a significant improvement in the pay and conditions of employment for early learning and childcare professionals. The level of pay they receive does not reflect the value of the work they do for children, families and our wider society. As the Deputy knows, the State is not the employer. We cannot directly determine the wages in the sector, but I am committed to doing whatever is in my power to influence that situation.

As the Deputy knows, last December I set up a pre-joint labour committee, JLC, process with the former chair of the Labour Court, Dr. Kevin Duffy, which engaged with IBEC's Childhood Services Ireland and SIPTU. On foot of that, the chair indicated that a JLC process had been indicated as the only real mechanism of improving pay and conditions for employees in the sector. Following on from that, I wrote to the Minister of State, Deputy English, and asked that he establish a JLC. That has been established. It is an important step forward. The work on the JLC is taking place and I am looking for an employment regulation order, ERO, to emerge from that.

As the Deputy said, an expert group is examining how we increase the level of public investment. We also have strong public management. It is not enough to just put money into a sector and see it disappear into fee hikes or the like; we have to manage the system. That is really important.

We have to provide clear career pathways for childcare professionals. That is why we have the workforce development plan. Let us be honest: it is, by and large, young women who enter the sector after doing a three or four-year degree and earn less than they did in the part-time jobs they did while in college or university. That is not going to keep people in the sector. The workforce development plan is essential to creating clear pay structures and pathways and making childcare an enticing profession for more and more people.

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