Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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8. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if progress has been made on the commitment in the programme for Government to conduct and publish an independent review of the cost of providing quality child care; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23046/16]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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This question is around the commitment in the programme for Government to conduct and publish an independent review of the cost of providing quality child care, an issue which concerns all of us. We need to focus on child care. There have been some improvements with regard to the second ECCE year but having a quality service for children is absolutely vital for their chances in life and the real cost for parents around the country.

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The programme for Government commits to conducting and publishing an independent review of the cost of providing quality child care. I envisage that my Department will tender for independent expertise to conduct the review in the autumn with a view to commencing it later this year. The report will need to be finalised by quarter two of next year and will be published. This commitment will be progressed in the context of broader policy work on the design and development of a new single affordable child care scheme.

Work is well under way on the development of policy proposals for the new affordable child care scheme which will greatly simplify the four current child care programmes for low income families. These are administratively complex and not easy to understand. As part of the review, my officials are examining previous published research and analysis on the cost of child care provision. They are also assessing available data sources and scoping the precise requirements for the independent review.

I believe that the work we are now undertaking presents a real opportunity to develop much improved supports for affordable, high quality child care. The review of costs will examine average costs, variations between regions and the reason for the differences. It will also deal with the links between costs and quality of child care supports.

I am committed to evidence-based future investment in high quality child care programmes, including the existing ECCE scheme and the planned single affordable child care scheme. I look forward to working with all interested parties as this work proceeds.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Minister may not be able to answer this question but I ask her to fight for money in the budget for this purpose. A significant amount of funding was put into the second ECCE year but the process needs to continue and we will be behind the Minister in fighting for funding for this when budget time comes. I also ask that the commitments be to direct subsidy rather than tax breaks, of which the Minister of State has said she is in favour. Direct subsidy is a much more proactive way to do it.

Is the Minister of State aware that some ECCE providers are concerned that they will have affordability difficulties with the contract they have been asked to sign? Correspondence from providers of child care services suggests that the expansion of the ECCE scheme will not be cost effective for them, because of the fact that it does not involve all-year funding.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Ó Laoghaire wants to intervene.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I support Deputy O'Sullivan's point. I understand there is a review of the CCA and other schemes but it needs to be much broader. We need to examine how child care can be subsidised for a much broader range of ages and for the general body of children. This is vitally important.

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Deputy's question was about me working as hard as I can to increase investment in early years provision. I am committed to doing that and I will do that. I have met with child care providers and county child care committees in the past couple of months and I have supported them in their efforts to advocate and organise. They are amazing individuals. The challenges are to invest to ensure they are properly paid and so that we can expand as we need to. We also need to invest to provide the resources for ongoing learning. There are different aspects to the matter of looking for additional moneys.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I welcome the fact that the Minister will be campaigning for more money. It is a very low-income sector and contains within it people with very good qualifications, which we need. I hope the Minister will focus on the issue of low pay.

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I am very aware of that and of concerns that some workers are paid close to the minimum wage and are requesting a living wage. I am also aware of concerns around non-contract hours.

In terms of their own learning, there are concerns also about accessing the learner fund. We may need to examine the different schemes that have been developed over the years to ensure that they can access the moneys they need to allow them continue on their learning path.