Dáil debates

Wednesday, 22 May 2019

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate

Early Childhood Care and Education Funding

1:30 pm

Photo of Eugene MurphyEugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I appreciate that this matter has been selected and that the Minister, Deputy Zappone, is in the House to deal with it. The community in Mountbellew will also appreciate the fact she has stayed to listen to the case I am going to make and, hopefully, she will have some good news for me.

I want to raise the urgent situation at the Mountbellew community childcare centre in County Galway. The centre has applied for a Pobal grant to fund a much-needed extension. The centre can currently cater for approximately 50 children but there is a significant waiting list to access the centre. Due to this waiting list, 30 additional children are currently using an interim measure of the loan of the national school gym, which, as I am sure the Minister will acknowledge, is not an ideal solution and not easy to manage. The children spend hours in their national school gym, where they have no access to rest areas. Even with this, many children in the community cannot access the centre because it is at maximum capacity.

There are many families whose children are not able to access their local community preschool programme. As we know, attending a preschool in their locality with peers who they will begin national school with is an advantage all our children should be afforded. Children in the area are forced to attend preschool in satellite towns and, even with this, they are only able to access limited days. Parents in this situation have been told their children are not advancing as well as hoped due to their limited attendance.

The centre urgently needs to be afforded this Pobal grant. The matter warrants immediate review. Investing in this centre makes economic sense. We must be able to facilitate parents to work and contribute while our children, the future generation, are nurtured in the best environment possible. This is rural Ireland. This is the generation working full time, bolstering our economy. I have been contacted by so many parents and members of the public from the Mountbellew area regarding this pressing matter. One email from a concerned father really rang a bell with me. He said that, in January of this year, he and his wife queued outside Mountbellew community childcare centre from 5.30 a.m. to try to get their daughter a place for September, only to be told there was no room at the inn and no space. This is because the childcare centre needs this extension urgently.

Mountbellew is fortunate to have a childcare centre of this calibre. All the emails to me from parents have noted the professional nature of staff and the loving, caring and nurturing environment. It speaks volumes that the majority of staff working there have been there for many years and continue to deliver the highest standard of care, with a continuing innovative approach.

Photo of Katherine ZapponeKatherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. A key priority for me as Minister is to ensure all children can access early learning and care and school age childcare that is affordable, accessible and of high quality. My Department supports the growing sector through the provision of capital funding where it is most needed. After decades of low levels of investment in early learning and care and school age childcare in Ireland, we are finally making progress. Over the past four budgets, investment has increased by 117%, rising from €260 million in 2015 to €575 million in 2019.

Assisting childcare providers in extending their existing childcare services and establishing new childcare services has been one of the key areas of focus for my Department’s capital programmes. Each year my Department reviews the capital programmes as a whole and determines the priorities for early learning and care and school age capital grants. The capital strands have been made available to achieve the strategic priorities for 2019 as determined by the Department, having regard to the funding available, the current state of the sector, learning from previous capital programmes and feedback and input from key stakeholders, including childcare providers and Pobal.

In 2019, I have secured a capital budget of €9.6 million for the sector, which will enable a focus on increasing the number of places available and supporting the transition of services to the forthcoming national childcare scheme. I have allocated €6.1 million of this funding for the 2019 early learning and care and school age childcare capital programmes. This funding will be delivered in three strands. First, €4.23 million will be delivered under strand A, which will offer grants of up to €50,000 to early learning and care providers for the creation of new places for 0 to 3 year olds, where demand for these is clearly evidenced. Second, I have allocated €875,000 to strand B, which will offer individual grants of up to €15,000 to aid community and not-for-profit early learning and care services in addressing fire safety issues. Third, there will be €1 million for strand C, which offers individual grants of up to €20,000 to school age childcare providers for the creation of new school age places where demand for these is clearly demonstrated.

I remain committed to assisting all childcare providers, both community and private, in providing world-class childcare and meeting demand for childcare places. As the Deputy will be aware, the application window for the capital programmes closed on 27 March 2019 and the appraisal process for applications is currently under way in Pobal. As I am sure he can appreciate, in the interest of fairness and equity, I am unable to comment on any service’s capital application. However, I assure him that all applications for funding will be appraised in a fair, thorough and impartial manner. In accordance with principles of fairness and equality, no favour will be shown to any individual service or services, and all appraisals will be undertaken on the basis of the content of their applications for funding alone. Decisions are due to be delivered to applicants in June 2019, with the aim that capital works can begin as soon as possible following this. The results of the appraisal process, including the final decisions, will be communicated to providers directly following their completion.

Photo of Eugene MurphyEugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I acknowledge the Minister's reply. I fully understand she cannot tell me about any project today. I again compliment her on fighting a good battle in securing such money at the Cabinet table for such projects. I know she realises that the up and coming generations are the people we have to nurture and care for. I have made a strong case for Mountbellew. I am sure it will come within the remit of that funding. Basically, what I have been doing here today is making the Minister fully aware of the importance of that facility to the town. It has a wonderful and progressive community and it is one of the liveliest towns in the west, which is very much community-focused. The childcare centre is very much part of that community and people know their children are being nurtured and cared for by good people in a good centre.

Indeed I welcome the funding that has become available to several projects in the Roscommon-Galway constituency. I will not labour the point. I sincerely thank the Minister for being here and for listening. I fully understand that she cannot make commitments on the floor of this House, but now she really knows the importance and significance of Mountbellew childcare centre and the pressure it is under. I appreciate the Minister's time today.

1:40 pm

Photo of Katherine ZapponeKatherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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It is very helpful for me to hear the Deputy's commentary concerning the Mountbellew childcare centre, particularly the way in which he describes the quality of provision for the children and the incredible commitment of the providers, the staff and the professionals. It is so important for us and for me as Minister that they stay there and continue to do that work. I know it can be challenging at times. We are working to ensure that their terms and conditions can improve with the investment as well as directing capital investment to create additional spaces.

As the Deputy can appreciate, calculating of the number of places required and allocating money for the necessary investment is not an accurate science. However, as I tried to describe in my response, we are trying to learn from all the stakeholders involved, especially local communities. We use a very special type of science called the geosparcity index, also utilised by Pobal, to get a sense of where the gaps in capacity are. The Deputy has raised, in such a clear, articulate and passionate way on the floor of the House, the issues facing this centre. This helps us to be aware not only of that centre but also of potential capacity issues in the wider area he refers to. I am very grateful that the Deputy did this today.