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

I thank the Deputy. Reform of the early learning and childcare sector is included in the programme for Government, bringing together the best of community and private provision and the development of a new funding model to ensure an affordable, accessible, sustainable and high-quality sector.

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To address pressures on parents, providers and professionals, I have always stated that my goal is to increase State management of, and investment in, the sector. An expert group was established in September 2019 to develop this funding model. Under their terms of reference, the expert group was not asked to propose changes to the current model of delivery, that is, privately-operated provision, rather that it should seek to further achieve policy objectives of quality, affordability, accessibility and contributing to addressing disadvantage in a privately-operated system through increased public funding and public management. In December 2021 the Government approved the 25 recommendations contained in the expert group report, Partnership for the Public Good, and the recommendations were accepted in full by the Government. The implementation of the new funding model is well under way, backed by the record levels of State investment that this year will equate to €1.1 billion. The main part of the new funding will be core funding. Of the 25 recommendations, three are grouped under the title "Role of the State", and in particular the final recommendation states, "In the medium term, the Minister should mandate the Department to examine whether some element of public provision should be introduced alongside private provision".

In January 2024 I established a new supply management unit in my Department. In addition to undertaking more detailed analysis of supply and demand in the sector and administering capital funding, part of its remit will be to begin an exploration of public provision as called for in recommendation 25. Work on that will commence later this year. In terms of the steps I have taken, it has been about cutting costs for parents, increasing pay for staff and increasing support for providers. We are aware of the capacity and challenges but also we are looking to that longer-term public model.

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