Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I start by offering my support to all those providing an early years service in this country. I pay tribute to all those staff and providers who go in day in, day out to do their very best for the families they look after. I am conscious that there are huge frustrations in the sector about core funding, wages and bureaucracy. Many service providers tell me they are running unviable services. Despite all these issues, they go in and provide a brilliant and much-needed service across every community in this country.

I raise the issue here of services that are experiencing difficult and specifically the powers of intervention and the resources to be made available by the Department of children to those services. We know that €331 million is being spent by the State in this year alone in core funding across almost 4,200 early years services. There is an unprecedented €1.37 billion in total funding to the sector this year. Despite this badly needed money, I have come to believe that the Department of children has far too little oversight over the governance structures of the early years services it funds. By extension, it is a shocking indictment of the Department that no powers of intervention exist when a service finds itself in difficulty.

I am currently witnessing a situation in Dublin 7, where a preschool service has announced the closure of an ECCE session with just eight days notice to parents and staff. There is a whole series of issues with regard to the notice. It should have been 30 days but because there is a whole range of sensitivities around the issue - I am not going to name the service - thankfully a two-week extension has been granted. The crucial point here is that if a closure of an ECCE service or session is announced, Pobal and the Department are effectively left powerless to act. They can offer supports and there is a sustainability fund in place, but at the end of the day if the management of a service decides to close, the State can do nothing to intervene. To me, that is not good enough. If a primary school or a secondary school gets into difficulty, there are very clear powers conveyed by the State to intervene. The State recognises the crucial importance of continued provision of primary and secondary education, but for early years services there is nothing.

The First 5 strategy document for babies and young children is a wonderful Government strategy that is full of ambition. Objective 8 is dedicated to children having access to safe, high-quality developmentally appropriate integrated early learning and care, but where is the real commitment by the Department to these children if it is prepared to allow children go without a vital ECCE service for weeks or months at what is a vital time in their lives? The implication here is that if a service closes for whatever reason, there is no immediate replacement. We know from talking to Pobal that at a bare minimum, even if a new service comes into an existing premises, we are looking at about six months before that service can reopen. That is unacceptable. Of course Tusla has to be engaged in a very detailed registration process. There are of course high standards for every early years service.

The reality then is that a community can be left without a service. The context here is that Stoneybatter suffered a loss of 105 preschool places in just a 12-month period. We have not seen the replacement of those places in the area. Indeed, those losses happened because of the actions of the former Department of the current Minister for children. A diktat from the Department of Education meant the licences of early years services within primary schools had to be terminated. In one instance, a room was left empty for eight months. I look forward to the response from the Minister of State, but I hope there will be some progress in terms of an intervention.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Sherlock for raising this important matter and for offering us the opportunity to respond. I am taking this Topical Issue matter on behalf of the Minister for children, Deputy Foley. With regard to resources through core funding, core funding is a grant to providers designed to support quality, sustainability and enhanced public management, with associated conditions in relation to fee control and cost transparency, incorporating funding for administration and to support the employment of graduate staff. The introduction of core funding in 2022 brought a significant increase in investment for this sector. This increased year on year and core funding now stands at €331 million in the current programme year.

In addition to the core funding grant for early learning and childcare providers towards operating costs, which the services avail of, case management supports are also available from the Department for any services experiencing financial difficulty or that have concerns about their viability. This support can take the form of assisting services with interpreting analysis of staff ratios and cash flow, financial support for services, as well as more specialised advice and support appropriate to individual circumstances. These supports can be accessed by any core funding partner service by contacting their local city or county childcare committee.

I have been informed by the Minister and her Department that the service in question is engaging with the Dublin City Childcare Committee and Pobal in relation to these supports. The Dublin City Childcare Committee and Pobal are assisting the service with considering all options that maintain its current capacity and hours, which may include temporary sustainability funding if appropriate. The decision by a service to close is ultimately a private business matter with which the Department cannot interfere. A meeting will take place between the board members and the parents-guardians this evening to discuss the potential closure of the afternoon session. The children attending the afternoon session have been offered a place in the service’s sister service, which is within 1 km of the service. Four of the eight children attending this session have accepted the offer of a place in the sister service. Additionally, other alternative arrangements are also being explored.

Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for that reply. I had not intended going into the details of the particular situation I raised with the Department last week, but just to be clear, the management is meeting with parents tonight. The meeting is not with staff. In fact, that takes a whole other week. It is perhaps a reflection of the disrespect to staff in this particular matter. The other crucial point is that the Department has been misinformed. The reality is that there are people who can only accept an afternoon service and what they are being offered is a morning service. It is important to put that on the record.

Returning to the wider point about the powers of intervention, for many of the brilliant services out there the discussion we are having this evening is largely irrelevant. They are brilliantly run and if there is a difficulty they engage with all the supports provided by Pobal and the Department. However, a few do not and the current set-up is a stark reminder that we have a lot of public money going into a privately-run sector. Indeed, the Minister of State said that the decision by a service to close is ultimately a private business matter with which the Department cannot interfere. The question must be asked as to whether that is good enough. We are calling on the Minister to instigate change here because with the right to State funding there must be a responsibility on the provider and on the State. No child should suffer a gap in early years education. That is what is going to happen here if that afternoon session closes, not for every child but for some children. It is not good enough or acceptable that the State and the Department of children would stand by and let this happen. There needs to be a much greater look at the governance of how early years services are run but also at the responsibilities of the Department in terms of being able to ensure the continued provision of early years education across every community in this country.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I agree with the sentiment of the matter the Deputy raised tonight. Certainly, the Department is committed to working with all core funding partner services concerned about their viability and to ensure we have oversight around case management processes. In this instance, it is between the provider, the local city and county childcare committee, and Pobal working together to assess and provide support to the early years and care services because we know how vital they are and we must ensure they are put on a more sustainable financial footing. If any services have concerns, they need to reach out to their local city and county childcare committee and the Department in respect of being informed of the types of support that may be available. The Department probably needs to do a better job in reassuring private providers because we are very much reliant on them right across the State. In my constituency, I know they are extremely important and really provide an important service. I refer to not just the providers but their staff as well. The core funding element did look at how we can strengthen staffing pay and recognition. We need to continue to do that. I will raise the issue the Deputy has raised with the Minister, Deputy Foley, and ensure we continue to invest in the sector and that the proper governance structures are in place.