James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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123. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth what steps she intends to take to implement the programme for Government commitment to extend the national childcare scheme to childminders working in the family home with sensible regulations that fit home-based care; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7879/25]

James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I congratulate you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, on your election. While I congratulated her in her absence, I also congratulate the Minister on her appointment.

When does she intend to implement the programme for Government commitment to extend the national childcare scheme to childminders working in the family home with sensible regulations that fit home-based care?

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. The national childcare scheme provides financial supports to parents to help reduce the cost of early learning and childcare. Only Tusla-registered providers are eligible to participate in the scheme. The limitation of public funding schemes to Tusla-registered providers helps to ensure that public funding is provided where there is assurance of the quality of provision.

All childminders are now eligible to register with Tusla. This follows the commencement of legislation on 30 September 2024 which removes the legal exemption of childminders from registration and ensures parents who use Tusla-registered childminders are eligible for subsidies under the national childcare scheme. The National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028 set out a pathway for the extension of registration to childminders. A key objective of the national action plan for childminding is to enable parents who use childminders to benefit from State subsidies through the national childcare scheme.

Childminding-specific regulations were initially developed by a regulation and inspection advisory group, whose stakeholder membership included childminders and Childminding Ireland. The regulations are proportionate and appropriate to the home and family setting in which childminders work. In finalising the regulations, substantial changes were made in response to feedback in the public consultation last year.

The national action plan commits to a review of the initial implementation of the childminding-specific regulations before 2028. The Department will undertake this review, which will include consultation with childminders and other stakeholders, during the three-year transition period which runs to 2027.

In order to access national childcare scheme subsidies, childminders must register with Tusla and then enter into contract to provide the scheme. In order to register with Tusla, a childminder is required to undertake pre-registration training, as well as meeting a number of other regulatory requirements and making an application to Tusla.

James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I am disappointed in the reply that the officials have written for the Minister. It is the same as a written reply I got to a parliamentary question on this specific issue. The reality is that the childminding services regulations do not apply to the care of a child by what the Department terms as a nanny or an au pair, but what normal people term as childminders working in the family home. This is a new policy that is in the programme for Government. It is brand new and did not exist in the past five years. The programme for Government has committed to introducing sensible regulations to facilitate this brand-new policy. Both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have made very clear that this will be a government of delivery and will be assessed against delivery. Is the Minister committed to instructing her officials to change the regulations to ensure she fulfils this programme for Government commitment to extend the childcare scheme to childminders working in the family home?

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I want to be absolutely clear so there is no misunderstanding here. The national action plan that currently exists for childminding distinguishes between childminding which involves care in the childminder's home and care that takes place in the child's home which may be carried out by a nanny, an au pair, a babysitter or whatever term one might wish to use. The employment relationship and the legal and regulatory context are completely different between childminders who work in the childminder's home and someone who works in the child's home. A childminder working from the childminder's own home is self-employed whereas someone caring for a child in the child's own home is regarded as an employee of the child's parents.

In addition, because they work in the parents' or the child's home rather than their own home, au pairs, nannies or babysitters cannot be held responsible for the safety or suitability of that home for the purpose of early learning or childcare. There are no current plans to bring nannies, au pairs or babysitters into the scope of registration or the national childcare scheme. However, the national action plan commits to develop information and training resources relating to the use of nannies, au pairs and babysitters.

James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Does the Minister accept that the wording she has read out and which her officials have supplied to her directly conflicts with the commitment in the programme for Government to extend the national childcare scheme to childminders who work in the family home? We all understand the current legal position and the current status quo. The Minister was part of the negotiation of the programme for Government. It is contained in the programme for Government and is a new policy. Unless she can point me to language in the programme for Government that somehow I am misinterpreting, I ask her to explain how that programme for Government commitment to extend the national childcare scheme to childminders working in the family home will be fulfilled.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As I have outlined and as the Deputy has said, this is a new scheme. The new scheme will be allowed to run but it is subject to review. That review will take place by 2027 in advance of 2028. Therefore, it will run and then there will be a review. We will then see what scope there is to change it, to add to it or whatever the case might be. However, in the existing national action plan for childminding there is an absolute distinction between provision of care for children in a childminder's home and the provision of care for children in the home of the child or parent. That is the position as it stands currently, notwithstanding that there will be a review and at that point there will be an opportunity to see if there is an opportunity to do things differently, to add to the scheme or whatever. There is a reference in the programme for Government to do as the Deputy has outlined. There is no timescale for that, but there is a reference and that can be manifested within the review process.