Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for taking this Topical Issue matter. He will remember that I intended to submit this matter a number of weeks ago and the Minister was not available to take it at the time, so I said I would come back to raise this important issue, which I am doing now. I know the Government is motivated to reduce childcare costs and that the Minister is motivated to do so as well. Since he Minister has taken office, a key goal of his has been to make childcare more affordable and accessible. In doing that, we have to ensure there is a childcare and early education service in place that can provide the service we are looking to provide to parents and guardians, which is very important.

I know the Minister says that, under the core funding model, an overwhelming majority of service providers will see an increase in funding and that only 1% will not see an increase. However, the bottom line is that if the new core funding model was fit for purpose, we would not have had a situation where hundreds of early childcare providers, early education providers, crèche operators and Montessori school operators descended on the gates of Leinster House like they did last week. I know the Minister went out to meet, address and listen to them, but the message I was getting is that the core funding model is not fit for purpose. It will be suitable and it will increase funding for a number of operators, which is right and merited, but we have to make sure nobody is left behind in this. That is incredibly important.

It is also important the smaller early childhood care and education, ECCE, operators are not left behind and I consider that they are. They are the people who were outside the gates of Leinster House last week. They were joined by many of the bigger chain operators in solidarity but it was mainly those smaller operators. My fear is that if we lose the smaller ECCE operators, we will leave gaps in services, especially in rural parts of Ireland. I am not being parochial and I know the favourite hobby of some Members is to list the towns and villages in their constituencies, but last week we had people from Skibbereen, Clonakilty, Aghyohil and Aghadown at the protest. The reason I mention those areas is not just to list off names but because if these ECCE operators find it hard to maintain and sustain their businesses under the new model, which they say they will, there will be gaps in services and parents and guardians will have to drive 7 km or 8 km to avail of childcare, Montessori and early education services. It seems to be affecting those smaller operators in rural areas more than in the bigger urban areas.

It is also not right that we have situations where many members of staff are signing on during the summer months simply because their work is not sustainable. That is something they do not want to do because many of the staff, and I am not trying to call anyone out with this, are having to say they are available for work when they essentially are not because they will join the service again in September when it reopens. It is also not fair that there are situations where the early education operators may have received €80 per child under ECCE because they had graduates and they are now dropping down to €69 per child. They are essentially being penalised for having graduates on their books. It is not fit for purpose and I am asking for an amending of the core funding model and some bit of movement. All the providers are asking for is to bring that payment per child from €69 up to €100. It is a big ask but surely we can meet them somewhere in between so that we can keep that service available.

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