Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to speak on this Stage. Reform is much-needed in the sector and is welcome, but what is proposed in the Bill is not at all adequate. It lacks the necessary and broad consultation with our childminders, who are a fundamental and critical cohort. Our childminders have virtually been ignored in this process despite having a wealth of experience and wisdom on the issue of childcare. In addition, the Bill lacks understanding and practical recognition of the criticality of this cohort, estimated at 53,000. It lacks the requisite consideration to make the necessary Tusla response quick, agile and timely enough.

Crucially, the Bill does nothing to ensure that the parents using the 53,000 childminders can avail of the national childcare scheme. What this Bill should be about is financially helping as many parents as possible who have been put to the pin of their collar to make ends meet when their monthly outgoings include skyrocketing mortgages, rents, groceries, fuel, insurance and the childcare mortgage. Sinn Féin stands fully with childminders and with all parents who use them and who want to avail of the national childcare scheme, as should be their right. We want to make it happen for as many parents as possible and to honour their choice of childcare arrangement, so any support we give the Bill comes with major caveats and we will table amendments on Committee Stage. As ever with this Government, the need to be seen to be doing something overcame its duty to do something that was carefully consulted on with all the key players and where the needs of children and the desires of their parents and childminders were carefully considered.

That the Government’s focus has tended to be more on care in childcare centres is not surprising. It is in keeping with the centre-right ambition to commodify, monetise and “profitise” care in the first and, indeed, last years of life and to uproot children and the elderly from their home environments. Many parents prefer centres for their childcare. The quality of care is high and can suit their needs, and we are all for that, but we are also for choice. In practice, many prefer their children to be cared for in an at-home environment, be it the children’s homes or those of their minders.

It must be recognised that childcare and childminding are two very different offerings and experiences. In childminding, the child gets to know the minder’s home as the child’s home for the hours he or she is there. It can be a stimulating and supportive environment for a child and highly educational in that importance sense. It can also be a supportive environment for parents because there are buckets of good advice when asked for and, above all, such arrangements are generally flexible, as there are no late fees for pickups and no parents on the Luas, DART or, as in my constituency, the 115 bus to Kilcock petrified at the thought of losing their childcare places because the mode of transport they are using is late again through no fault of their own.

Draft regulations for childminders were open for public consultation early this year as part of the National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028. Consultations closed in early May and the findings are yet to be published. Despite the fact that we have an estimated 53,000 childminders, many of whom are solid gold for parents and children, fewer than 100 are registered. This means that only the parents using those 100 childminders can avail of government subsidies through the national childcare scheme. The parents using the other 52,900 are locked out of the scheme. That is bonkers and Sinn Féin wants to change it.

Parents of young children are exhausted and broke. They need a hand, not a shove. From Sinn Féin’s perspective, this change requires the Government to accept that childminding is different from other forms of childcare. With their vast depth and breadth of care and caring, we cannot understand why childminders have not been listened to properly in this process. Their input, and the Government listening to that, is critical if regulation is to work. We believe strongly that families need a childminding sector that is supported as an integral part of the wider childcare sector and that this service must be maintained and developed into the future.

As presented, there is no incentive in the Bill for childminders to sign up to the draft regulations. If the Minister is serious about parents’ choice and developing the mix of childcare available and covered by the NCS, he needs to change tack quickly and listen.

However, our difficulties with the Bill are about more than a failure to listen or to include the 52,900 childminders. We also have serious practical and operational concerns about, for example, Tusla’s capacity to register significant numbers of childminders and to then manage that caseload on an ongoing basis. It seems that the Minister is setting this up to fail. How is Tusla going to manage that caseload? For some aspects, it takes three months for regulation to be completed.

There is every likelihood that this timeframe will increase and create a significant backlash, leaving children, parents and their minders in the lurch. In addition, there is an issue of fees and transparency. A yearly fee from the childminder will be required to cover the cost of inspections but what this exact figure will be has not yet been disclosed. For obvious reasons, this has childminders worried. They fear they could be caught for significant administrative fees over which they have no control. Equally, concerns have been raised regarding the sharing of personal information online and in public forums. Privacy matters. We call on the Minister to ensure that he heeds this consent and takes it seriously.

The length of time required to notify an age profile change has been set at 60 days. This is not comparable with the unique nature of childminding, which gives families invaluable and cherished flexibility. We have to wonder whether this is more about accommodating Tusla staff and less about looking after the minders, the children and the parents.

We have serious concerns about some of the terminology contained in the Bill. Childminders are asked to change their title to “provider” and the description of their homes to “premises”, demands that have no material value and depersonalise the unique offering of a home-based childminder and all the comfort this implies and offers. Equally, the Bill stresses “training” and “interview” but as concepts only, with no indication of what either will demand or involve. Who will do it? Who will pay for it? Who will examine it? What criteria will be used? How will they be set and by what and whose standards? It seems someone said that “training” and “interview” would look good here, so that was put in - honestly, it does. On top of that, there are further provisions that attempt to constrain the unique offering of childminders.

Far from constraining them, we should be consulting with them, heeding them and using their vast experience to inform Government policy. The essence of the childminder-parent relationship is all about personal safety, trust, flexibility, respect, kindness and common sense. Let us face it. In handing our children over to a childminder, we give them the most precious things we have in our lives. We are far more concerned about their character and their kindness than we are about regulations, bureaucracy, regulations on day trips, signing in and signing out, nutritional requirements and complaints procedures. That works fine and is very necessary for a childcare centre but it would seem a bit of a pantomime for a childminder to be engaged in. Childminders and parents will rightly dismiss it as the bureaucratic nonsense that it is. The Minister should listen to actual experts here, the childminders themselves, engage with them, talk to them and listen to them. The provisions of the Bill feel removed, remote and cold, the polar opposite of the warmth inherent in the childminding experience. This Bill can and must do better.

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