Katherine Zappone (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and wish her a happy international women's week. There are two women at the Cabinet table and 12 men. We have the evidence. The Minister has the dynamism, vision and ambition required. Is the work of the Government not based on evidence? Is evidence not important in formulating policy? Everyone should get a copy of the Minister's speech. She has demonstrated the necessary ambition and evidence gathering skills for a long period. She is aware of new evidence and how critical it is.

In preparing my remarks I examined the Department's overall strategy and mission statement which refers to leading the effort to improve outcomes for children and young people. The Minister is well aware of the long list of things the Department must do to implement the strategy. Everything on the list has been either completed or the Minister has begun to do work on it. Her speech demonstrates her mastery of the detail, for which I commend her. However, her desire to develop, implement and, presumably, lead the national early years strategy has the potential to become her greatest legacy. Some of the strategy is built on the work of the previous Government and it is wonderful to see this seamless commitment, as Senator Terry Leyden noted. The Minister is now in place and the champion of the cultural shift in our public programmes of prevention and early intervention for children. She is aware of and referred to the bias in favour of policies that support later intervention, which is expensive and ineffective too. It is critical to address this issue and I commend and support the Minister for her efforts.

I have two questions on the early years strategy. I hope it is not too presumptuous to think the Minister might say "Yes" in response to my first question. Will the strategy contain a commitment to invest in the services which prevention and early intervention sites have demonstrated to work in Irish settings? The Minister has identified many of the evaluations and, as she has stated previously, some things did not work. However others are working and I hope to see in the strategy a commitment to begin to implement and invest, not necessarily in every site in Ireland, but in those that have been demonstrated to work. Will the strategy name the systems to be developed to enable schools, the new agency to be established by the Minister, community, voluntary and private providers of children's services, parents and children to work together in an integrated fashion? I hope to see in it a development and a naming of the systems, not only the ways of working, that need to change to develop that integration.

The Minister referred to another issue, also raised by a number of Senators, that is, the Mangan report. We are aware of budgetary decisions made prior to publication of the report. There are issues of cash versus services or perhaps cash plus services. Senator Sean D. Barrett spoke at length about this issue and I agree with much of his commentary. As the Minister is aware, the next part of the Mangan report will consider in-work benefits for lower income families. That will be important information for us to ensure the reform of child income supports is implemented but to ensure, at the same time, that there is an incentive for people to stay in employment. Will the Minister consider the possibility that we may need an examination of the idea of cash plus services? This picks up on something to which Senator Sean D. Barrett referred. We need to investigate the amounts of money available in child income support and the types of services that could be matched with it to produce the best outcomes in different environments. I have put it to the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, and now put it to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs that they both have the moral authority to seek reform without further savings in child income supports. I support them in this regard.

My final point relates to economic issues. The Minister quoted and identified research into the benefits and costs of the early years strategy. Other Senators have referred to this aspect also. Many of the data arise from first generation research. I am not referring to research in Ireland but to the work of Mr. Jim Heckman whom I met when we were setting out to work on the prevention and early intervention sites eventually presented. Now, second generation research is coming through. Will the Minister consider the possibility of investigating new and innovative approaches to estimate the cost and benefits of interventions and services to build on the data from the earlier period? New econometric models are being developed to estimate the benefits and costs to local and central government to inform Government decisions on early interventions. An evidence base for investment holds considerable potential to assist strategic decision making on competing policies and programmes. We only have so much money available and can only fund certain things. New research is emerging based on these econometric models which can help us to carefully select investments that could make a significant difference not only to the outcomes for children but to the public purse also.

The renowned Washington State Institute for Public Policy has created a model for the United States and my colleague, Professor Michael Little, from Darlington in the United Kingdom is working with the institute to create a model for Europe. They are developing a way to estimate the cost of a particular service, for example, a reading programme or a reduction in class size and the economic benefits to the child, the local agency and the state. They provide an analysis which suggests policy options for the Legislature. The institute informed the early learning strategy of the governor of the State of Washington, whom the Minister met with me some time back when that state produced the ground-breaking early years strategy. Since Ireland is setting out to publish its first national early years strategy, this could be a prime opportunity to take the lead throughout Europe to develop a model for current and future legislators in order that we can improve outcomes for children with smart, targeted and modest sums of investment.