Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy. I acknowledge many early learning and childcare services report recruitment and retention challenges. In general, these challenges are not caused by insufficient supply of qualified staff, but by high levels of turnover. The most recent annual early years sector profile survey shows staff turnover is at 24.5%. It is estimated that one third of staff leaving services are doing so to move to another service. Staff turnover is linked to pay and working conditions. However, the State is not an employer of staff and neither I nor my Department set pay or working conditions.

  The joint labour committee process is the formal mechanism by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates for the sector. Outcomes from the joint labour committee process are supported by Government through core funding, which has seen its allocation increase from €259 million in year 1 to €350 million for the coming programme year 2025-26. An additional €45 million, which I referenced earlier, has been ring-fenced in the coming programme year to support employers to meet the costs of further increases to the minimum rates of pay conditional on updated employment regulation orders.

 Staff in this sector play a key role in supporting children’s development and well-being, working in partnership with families. Recognising their central importance for the quality of provision, my Department continues to deliver on the workforce plan for the sector, Nurturing Skills. Nurturing Skills aims to support the professional development of the workforce and sets out plans to raise the profile of careers in the sector, establish role profiles, career pathways, qualification requirements, along with leadership development opportunities. To support the development of career pathways, the role profiles of educator, lead educator and manager, which were set out in Nurturing Skills, were given legal meaning when used as the basis for the employment regulations orders for the sector. These orders now embed a career structure by setting different rates of pay for the different roles. Further developing career pathways, both Nurturing Skills and Equal Start identify special posts of responsibility and other measures.

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