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

In December of last year, I announced a €10 million grant programme to improve ventilation and reduce the transmission of Covid-19 in early learning and childcare settings. This provided services with grants ranging from €1,500 to €4,500. The rental or purchase of HEPA filters is among the items of eligible expenditure under this grant programme and guidance has been provided on the HEPA filters that are suitable for use in childcare settings. The grant programme opened for applications on 16 December. The original closing date of 7 January 2022 but we extended it to 31 January 2022 so that as many services as possible could avail of this grant. Some 4,109 services have now applied the grant which means that 95% of eligible services have made an application.

That €10 million grant programme is just part of a suite of supports provided to the early learning and childcare sector since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Other supports include tailored funding arrangements during periods of closure and restricted access to services, a range of capital programmes, an antigen programme, sector-specific infection prevention and control guidelines and access to the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, with an exemption to the turnover rule. The provision of the EWSS at the full rate is equal to an investment of €34 million per month. The value of EWSS at standard rates is equal to an investment in the sector of €22 million per month. That additional money has allowed for sector-specific public health guidance to be implemented. The most important aspect of this is the play pod system that has been implemented since the beginning of the pandemic.

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There is strong evidence that these Covid-19 supports are helping and supporting the early learning and care sector. Recent Tusla data show that the number of early learning and childcare settings that closed completely decreased significantly in 2021 compared with the previous two years. Data from the Revenue Commissions show that the number of staff employed in the sector has held steady. HSE data show that the rates of transmission within early learning and childcare settings have remained low compared with rates of community transmission.

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