Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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76. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when parents who use childminders will be able to benefit from the reduction in childcare fees; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56370/22]

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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110. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the steps that are being considered to ensure that childminders can access much-needed supports under the national childcare scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56487/22]

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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121. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his attention has been drawn to the fact that childminders cannot access supports available under the national childcare scheme. [56977/22]

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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124. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide an update on the childminding steering group; when he expects the group to publish its report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56700/22]

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I want to ask when the parents who use childminders will be able to benefit from the flagged cuts to childcare costs.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 76, 110, 121 and 124 together.

The National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028 commits to opening the national childcare scheme to childminders at the earliest possible opportunity, although it will be necessary first to develop and introduce childminder-specific regulations and to give childminders adequate time and support to meet regulatory requirements. The Childcare Support Act 2018, which provides a statutory basis for the national childcare scheme, specifies that only Tusla-registered providers are eligible to participate in the national childcare scheme. The restriction of public funding to Tusla-registered providers helps ensure that funding is only provided where there is assurance of the quality of provision.

Childminders who are currently minding four or more preschool children, or seven or more children of any age, are already required to register with Tusla and can already access the increased subsidies for parents announced in budget 2023. While only a small number of childminders are currently registered with Tusla, it is intended that the national action plan for childminding will result in the opening up of the national childcare scheme to a much wider cohort of childminders.

The overall objective of the national action plan is to improve access to high quality and affordable early learning and care and school-age childcare through childminding. To do this, the action plan sets out an incremental and supportive pathway to reform. Phase 1 of the national action plan, which began in 2021, is expected to take two to three years to complete. Phase 1 includes: development of new, childminder-specific regulations that are proportionate and appropriate to the home environment in which childminders work; development and roll-out of new, bespoke training for childminders; amendment of primary legislation to enable childminders to register with Tusla; and re-examining the funding and financial supports available for childminders.

A steering group was formed in September 2021 to drive and monitor implementation of the commitments in the national action plan.

The steering group is chaired by my Department and includes representation of childminders, parents and other key stakeholders. The steering group is supported by four advisory groups, membership of which also includes representation of childminders, parents and stakeholders. The steering group provides strategic direction for the national action plan, drawing on the advice of the advisory groups. It advises my Department on policy, as well as regulatory and budgetary measures to ensure effective implementation, and it monitors risks and identifies measures to mitigate those risks. The steering group is required to submit an annual progress report to me. I am looking forward to receiving its first annual progress report in the near future.

Since coming into office, I have been committed to seeing this process through. A great deal of work still lies ahead. This is a complicated matter. There are thousands of individuals who are doing valuable work supporting parents, families and children. We want the parents using those services to be able to avail of the NCS but we need an element of regulations and some guarantees in terms of quality and basic standards. We are seeking to design appropriate regulations. We cannot apply to childminders the regulations that we apply to service-based childcare. We have to make it attractive for them to come into that process. That is why we are working closely with representative bodies to explain what we are doing, get a sense of which regulations can or cannot apply, and seek to roll that out. We are seeking to make it attractive and get childminders signed up. Once they are signed up and registered with Tusla, the parents who use them will be able to start to draw down the NCS.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I want to pick up on the Minister's final point. I get that this is complicated. There is no square peg in a round hole when it comes to childminders. It is often the case that when childminders are being used, it is because there are no other suitable childcare options. There could be many good reasons for that, such as the size of a family, work patterns or kids being at different stages of education. Putting a 12-year-old or an 11-year-old into afterschool care is not really desirable but, equally, leaving such a child at home alone is not feasible.

The Minister can correct me if I am wrong. Phase 1, which involves two to three years for developing the regulation, kicked off in September 2021, so we are looking at September 2023 or September 2024 before it is completed. The crux of my question is, when will parents currently using childminders who are not in the situation the Minister mentioned in terms of minding more than four or seven kids and already being registered with Tusla genuinely be able to make the most of what has been an expansive and welcome shift in funding when it comes to childcare models? Can the Minister provide specific dates in that regard?

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The very small number of parents who are using childminders registered with Tusla are able to avail of it already. The Deputy stated that the first phase is set out until 2024. I have asked my officials to see if we can condense that phase as much as possible. I am conscious that many parents using childminders will see the support that parents using centre-based care are getting and will justifiably ask why they are not being supported too. I have asked the officials to work to get those regulations in place more quickly. I cannot give guarantees, however, in respect of the sign-up of childminders because they have to opt to undertake this regulation process. We are making it a simpler process. We are going to make it as attractive to them as possible but, ultimately, they have to make the determination. The childminder representative groups say there is an element of fear in the context of being regulated. We are seeking to do this in a processed way but not rush it because if we rush it, there may be a risk of losing people from even engaging.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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If legislative change is required, the whole House would get behind that to enact it as quickly as possible, although not in a rushed manner, of course. That is welcome. It goes to the nature of child minding. It is quite an ad hocprofession. It is not necessarily a role a person enters directly; it is something that many people fall into and it becomes a good fit because it is flexible. This comes to the crux of getting people to sign up. My late mother did it for four or five years. It fit around where she was in her professional career. There is a need to be flexible to make it attractive to people who decide it suits them because they have their own children. Let us be frank, it is generally women who are taking up these roles. Although speed is of the essence when we are designing regulation, a level of flexibility aimed at childminders will ensure that parents who avail of childminders will be able to get the best bang for their buck as well.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Deputy is correct that many people - it is primarily women - who enter childminding do so on an ad hocbasis. What we are talking about here, however, is that when the ad hocbasis is supported by State money through the NCS and we are providing a subsidy towards that, we have to have guarantees in terms of the quality of provision. There has to be something of that kind when it come to any investment of State money. That is why we need this regulatory framework. It is designed around the reality of childminders. As I stated, we are not transporting what we use for centre-based regulation; it will be quite different and it will be simplified. It does need to be in place, however, if we are to offer support under the NCS. It is about designing that as quickly as possible and, as I stated, I have asked the officials to do so. There has to be consultation in that process, however. Childminders are a diverse group. We work closely with Childminding Ireland but the child-minding ecosphere is much broader than that and it is difficult to reach all elements of it. We are working to do so, however. We are working to get those regulations done as quickly as possible. Once that is done, we will work to sign up those who wish to sign up and make the NCS available to the parents who are using their childminding services.