Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the commitment of the Minister of State to examine the issue of early child care and I am happy to work with him on that. I understand if someone is exempt from rates the pie stays the same and has to be divided. The reality is that the pie does not stay the same for early child care settings. Where they are providing the State free preschool year the rate per child, space requirements and number of early childhood educators required are set by the State.

The variable is rates. A child care provider in Fingal told me it is charged rates as high as €20,000, but those in other parts of the country are charged €10,000 or are exempt. Consistency, whether one is for profit, is a major issue. I understand children can be in different rooms, but those availing of the free preschool year are all the same room because they are all the same age. The State has defined the space. A provider should be able to state that it has X number of children in the scheme, therefore it should be exempt. We have to find a way to address this because the costs of providing the State scheme for some early child care providers are prohibitive. Many are on the brink of saying they cannot afford to provide the scheme.

Why are we allowing other children in not-for-profit and private child care providers subsidise a State scheme which the State is hailing as free for all children? In many areas, other parents are subsidising the scheme because they are paying for the extra space needed for this child care place. We have recognised the importance of early childhood care and education. I want to ensure that wherever people are located, they can access early childhood care and education. While this legislation cannot answer all of our ills, it should not contribute to or add to them. We must work to ensure we minimise these ills. I am happy to take up the Minister’s offer to work with him between now and Report Stage to see what we can do in this regard. This is a larger issue than people realise. When child care providers start closing, people will ask why they did not pay attention. Rates are a massive issue for these care centres and are one of the main variable factors for them.