Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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70. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he has engaged or will engage with childcare providers in Dublin on their concerns about the core funding model; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56369/22]

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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What engagement has the Minister had with childcare providers in Dublin on their concerns about the new funding model?

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Together for Better is the new funding model that supports the delivery of early learning and childcare for the public good. It was recommended by an expert group, adopted by the Government, and has been widely welcomed by representative groups advocating for parents, children, the workforce and providers. To date, 93% of providers - well over 4,100 - have signed up. Of those, 984 are in the Dublin area.

While the large majority of representative groups and individual providers have embraced core funding, I am disappointed that one group has co-ordinated a campaign which includes calling on services to close ECCE provision on certain days. While only a small proportion of providers took part in those closures, they are not warranted considering the level of State investment taking place now. I offered to meet this group on the condition that further closures would be called off, and that offer still stands.

One of the primary demands put forward by this group is that services see an increase in the capitation from €69 to €76 per child per week for the ECCE programme, but that level of increase is already available through core funding. Core funding will now provide, at a minimum, €78.75 per week for those who sign up to core funding. There appears to be some objections to the idea of public management that is linked to the new model. In particular, there is opposition to the fee freeze and some of the requirements of financial and operational transparency.

The new funding model was designed with extensive stakeholder engagement. Since core funding was announced, my Department has hosted eight meetings of the early learning and childcare stakeholder forum and frequent meetings with provider representative groups on core funding. I have attended many of the stakeholder forum group meetings. I met with a number of representative groups over the summer and I meet regularly with individual childcare providers in my constituency and throughout the country. The city and county childcare committees have been working intensively to support services and parents. I am fully committed to working with sectoral representative groups in continuing to deliver for the sector.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for that fulsome reply and the genuine approach he is taking to this issue. Like anyone in this Chamber, I very much welcome the Together for Better model but I do have a concern. The Minister mentioned that 93% of providers have taken up the model, but that is not the case in my constituency, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, where the uptake is 81%. There is an issue there and it needs to be addressed, regardless of who is co-ordinating what. I humbly ask that the Minister consider meeting childcare providers without any preconditions. Let us just have those discussions and see if we can address those key concerns. The people who are suffering, from my point of view, are those who are coming to my clinics and contacting my office. They are the parents and guardians who rely on these brilliant services and who have to take days off work, completely change their schedules or cancel medical appointments. They do not want politics; they want a solution.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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We are up to 85% takeup of core funding now in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. That is continuing to grow, which is very positive. I know that is still slightly below the national level, but it is still a very significant level of takeup. The Deputy spoke to the disruption to parents and to children's learning from these closures. Again, I just do not believe they are necessary. I am always open to working with people. I have engaged extensively throughout Covid. My Department was extremely reactive in respect of Covid, bringing in the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, for the entire sector without any preconditions. We will look to support the sector with increased energy costs through the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS. We are very reactive. We want to support the sector. We recognise the massive underinvestment that has taken place over decades. We are responding to that. In one budget this year we have provided an additional €346 million. I hope the sector recognises my bona fides and the Government's intention to support all three elements: parents, providers and staff.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the marginal increase in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area, but we have to reflect on the fact that this sector is very diverse. There is no one size fits all. I say that as someone who has kids in the sector and a wife who has been a Montessori teacher for more than a decade, usually with small independent providers. There are many issues at play with the one-size-fits-all model. General costs in Dublin are different from those in the rest of the country. We have spoken at length this morning about rising costs in respect of utilities and everything else. I have a major concern, however, that when we do not have maximum buy-in and when services are not specifically located and targeted where there is such a lack of buy-in, it takes an element of the goodness away from what the Minister has said is an amazing achievement, that is, this massive increase in funding that is so long overdue and welcome. However, it is proving very difficult in my constituency. I have dealt with providers and parents and talked to the children who go to these services. When there is this lack of joined-up thinking, sadly, it just undermines what is a wonderful initiative by the Minister and the Government.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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It is a diverse sector and we want to continue that diversity. That is why we are looking to put the ECCE programme on a statutory basis. That way there will continue to be a strong role for ECCE-only providers because that is what some parents want.

In respect of the slightly lower sign-up rate in the Deputy's area, and indeed in my area, ultimately, many of the providers remain in the private sector and they make a determination as to whether they contract with us. We are not going with a takeover model. We are allowing them to make their own determinations. I believe we have made core funding as attractive as possible. It will mean services will get significantly more investment this year than last year.

There are, however, some conditions and I will stand over those conditions absolutely. We need the fee freeze and we need transparency. We are putting €1 billion into this sector. We need to understand the books, we need to understand how that is actually delivering for services, and we need the fee freeze because, without it, the additional money we are putting into the NCS will be eroded by subsequent fee increases.