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

I thank the Deputy for his contribution. That is the reason that I am bringing forward a package of €221 million in core funding for the childcare sector in a full year. That money is primarily designed to address the issue specifically raised by the Deputy on the rates of pay that our fantastic childcare professionals receive at the moment. Core funding, dependent on the employment regulation order that is being negotiated at the joint labour committee right now, will deliver increased rates of pay for those childcare workers, which means that they will not be leaving the sector and that the services that exist now will not have to shut rooms because they will be able to continue to get staff. That is linked to the fee freeze and because if we are giving this very substantial amount of money to the sector, the State has to get something back, which is why we have the fee freeze. As the Deputy has correctly identified that is not enough which is why the focus is going to be on increasing the NCS in next year’s budget.

To address Deputy Murnane O’Connor’s question on the expert group, this group has been stood down now and it is now within my Department’s remit.

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