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

Significant steps have been taken over the last four years on improving pay but we absolutely need to go further. I would love to see a process initiated where we start to look at how we align the pay of early years professionals with the pay of other educators across our society. That will be expensive and we have to recognise that. It is really good value for the State because I see the investment and the work early years educators do with babies and young children and the support they give through education but also through care and supporting families with the decisions they make and balancing work and care commitments.

We have to recognise we are still not spending enough on early years education as a State. I have doubled it in the last four years but we still need to do more. A very significant portion of that additional funding, in my view, needs to be spent on aligning pay rates for early years professionals with other educators in our system.

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