Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. Ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh an Aire go dtí an Teach.

I admire anybody who deals with early years education. When I was a teacher I only taught in an infants' class for 20 minutes and afterwards I decided I could not do it any more. Teaching such young children is a very challenging and complex task. People dealing with children of that age need to be fully supported. Maria Montessori wrote a book on early years education. The Minister is a qualified Montessori teacher, so there is no one better placed to deal with early years education. That includes the setting up of the new early years education advisory group, which will include the professionals who work in the field, which is a very good idea. The Minister's personal commitment to the sector, as stated here and in other places, is welcome. As we know and as the Minister has stated, there has been a 96% take-up of the preschool year.

Education reform was mentioned here. I wish to digress a little and appeal to the teachers and organisations involved in tomorrow's strike to support the Minister's junior cycle reform programme. She has gone out of her way to alleviate the worries of the teachers and organisations involved. I have spoken to many teachers around the country and they agree with me that she has been more than facilitating. I call on the ASTI and TUI to move forward in a spirit of working together and for the benefit of all our children.

The Minister mentioned that we may shortly have an inspectorate to examine the work of preschool units. That is probably a good idea. The Irish word for "inspector" is "cigire", and the meaning of the first part of the word is to look, to see and, at the very worst, to spy on. That is how the role was perceived at one time. We need, as is happening, to move the inspectorate away from the perspective of us against them. I remember Liam Mulvihill said that to me in 1979 when he came to my club, which was just after he had been appointed director general of the GAA. On that occasion I said to him, "You are on the other side from me," and he replied: "No. We are all on the same side." I hope we can continue to move the inspectorate to a role of cigire or helper system, particularly as it is being set up anew.

The Association of Childcare Professionals has said that its members do not feel valued, that they have had enough, that child care is a sector of high expectations but low investment and that they need more assistance. I think assistance will be provided in degrees. We also need to look at the present FETAC level 6 qualification framework for leaders, which I think it is fine. The association is comprised of 3,500 members. Can a mentoring system for new principals, such as the one for the Irish Primary Principals' Network, be introduced? If that was done it would mean new leaders would be mentored by people within the organisation and the system would develop.

The early years education policy is now co-located within the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Department of Education and Skills. This was done in order to ensure that policy developments in the early childhood sector are developed within an overall strategic policy framework for children. We also have the early years education policy unit, EYEPU. We have the Aistear in Action toolkit, which is a set of practical resources on the four themes of well-being, communication, identity and belonging, and exploring and thinking.

We have Síolta, the national quality framework for early childhood education, and the workforce development plan. We have the Early Start programme, a pre-primary initiative for designated areas of urban disadvantage, with 40 centres and 1,650 spaces. On that, and what Senator Power said about special needs children in early years education, perhaps we could have an added focus in order that the outcomes could be stronger. It may be something on which the advisory group and all those involved could work. It would be very beneficial.

The question is to where we now go to move on from childminding and child care. We remember a time when a "crèche" was a car accident in Dún Laoghaire, as they used to say. There were also childminders. We want to know how to nurture the holistic being. We need to move on from diverse forms of provision to best practice, in terms of facilities, providers, leaders, ancillary staff, resources, standardisation and quality control.

The early child care and education programme is designed to provide for children from birth to six years of age. The free preschool year provides for children from three years and two months of age. Perhaps we have a lacuna. The parent is the primary educator of the child, something we should not forget when we are dealing with early years education. We need programmes for parents in order that they can read to and with their children in the very early years, perhaps from the time they are three or six months of age, which is a major benefit.

We must further encourage and develop in-service training in order that leaders and assistants can remain up to date with relevant research and ideas. This should include assisting all staff in an understanding of practical child psychology. If this discipline is so vital for infant education in primary schools, where it receives a special focus, it can be no less vital for the three to six year olds in preschool settings.

Síolta does, admittedly, deal with this somewhat, but we need to be sure all carers and educators understand the theory and how to apply it in practice. I have no doubt that the Minister is proving to be an excellent Minister for Education and Skills and will deal with all of these issues very effectively.