Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chair. I would like to express my deep appreciation for all of the contributions from all of the Senators and the care with which they prepared those. Clearly, I can feel their appreciation for what I am trying to do and it means a lot. As we have said a few times, I believe we are taking a radical new step to ensure the support and the sustainability in the way we care for and value our children in whatever setting that happens. It is extremely helpful in making such a significant step forward to receive the support of Senators, as well as their critical questions, some of which I will try to address now. As the questions have been wide-ranging, I may not reach them all but Ms Bernie McNally, my assistant secretary, is in the Chamber and is taking note of the questions. If I do not reach all of them we will be willing to provide those answers in written form.

I have heard some of the ways Senators have identified that what we are trying to do is actually to rethink or re-conceptualise the ways in which we provide, understand and resource the care and education of our children and young people. We are trying to recognise the cost of care in a different way than we did before and to ensure greater work-life balance, which is absolutely critical. Above all - I believe many Senators have commented on this - I refer to the way in which changes are made in the additional investment I have managed to secure for children and young people. I will refer to some of the Senators' remarks on youth services as I conclude, but particularly on the child care scheme. The plan is an attempt to ensure additional investment in children for their future. It is not in any way an effort to discriminate against families. As many Members have stated, it is an effort, in a new way, to highly value the care that is provided by all parents, relatives, grandparents and the way in which we balance the valuing of all who are caring for children. While this is a general response to some of the Senators' appreciation and comments in the overall approach I have taken, I will now turn to some of the more specific questions.

Senator Clifford-Lee raised the issue of Garda vetting. We are working very closely with the national vetting bureau to decrease the time it takes so we can ensure that organisations have access to child care professionals as soon they are required. I have already indicated I am committed to that and I have already begun to prepare for budget 2018. Coming up to budget 2017, I said that were we to approach the budgetary provision for the investment in child care and early years learning in a manner approaching the average of OECD countries, Ireland would need to invest at least €100 million over the next five years. This year, coming into the 2017 budget, the provision was €121 million so I would need to get at least that much - if not more - for 2018.

As we move into 2017, one great thing is the way in which the Department operates with city and county child care committees, with public representatives and with child care providers themselves, especially with the national early years forum I established recently to work closely with me in monitoring the implementation of the changes we have identified. The Department is always doing that and we are consistently evaluating the impact of the change to see if it needs to be tweaked further.

Questions were also asked about the various entry points, particularly the age levels with regard to the ECCE entry points. That in itself was an effort to respond to a situation where a child might miss an entry level point for a whole year due to their birth date. That is why we established those three entry points. I hear that concern and I know the officials are hearing that too. There are still some questions and concerns around that and we will look at those.

Senators asked for clarification around the early child care scheme and what net income actually means. It means net income from households, whether assessed individually or jointly. We will consider that. The good thing about the scheme I have introduced is that as it will not be implemented until September 2017, we have time to prepare and to continue to deal with questions and concerns. I will also ask my officials to revert to the Senators about whether income from a property which is in negative equity will be assessed.

Senator Noone spoke about how the issue of the cost of child care was often raised on the doorsteps. The election was not that long ago -although in some ways it seems like a lifetime ago and I can tell Members I never expected to be sitting in this chair - and the cost of child care was raised consistently during that election campaign. Senator Noone also made reference to the Growing Up in Ireland survey. I had a great privilege of launching the ESRI compilation. I believe Senator Devine may have also referred to that in her remarks with regard to analysing the Growing Up in Ireland study and the analysis of some of the meaning of the data from the past ten years, so much of which has to do with issues of inequality and how we are going to address those across the board as a Government.

With regard to my Department and this particular scheme, it is an attempt to address the issue of inequality for children in a way that has not been done before and to do it in a systematic way that can be built on over time. I believe some of the questions have to do with the numbers of children who would benefit from the new approach. There are some 31,000 children currently benefitting from the existing schemes. We have checked the new scheme against these and we know that 95% of those children will actually be better off. We have made provision to ensure that the balance of 5% will maintain their existing level of benefit or subsidy when the scheme is introduced. My Department will be actively monitoring the cost to ensure that the top-up payment by parents does remain manageable. Senators Higgins, Ruane and others raised the issue of fees and the capping of fees. I am very much aware of the importance of looking at this because I too am concerned about the fees issue.

As the Senators are aware, this affordable scheme is about making decisions on where to put the limited resources - even though I was able to get a significant amount for September 2017 - how to allocate those resources and in what places, while having regard to affordability, quality and accessibility. In addition, the issue I have heard so clearly, having worked with people in the sector for most of my life in the country, concerns the professionals and practitioners who work within the sector. The importance of investing in staff is related to the issue of fees. In 2017 we are also investing €14.5 million in respect of the professionals and the practitioners in the centres, to provide additional moneys for non-contact time and for the learner fund to increase their levels of qualifications. We have raised the capitation beyond what it was and have related it to the access to qualifications, in addition to restoring all levels of capitation.Those are ways in which we are spending some of the money to support providers.

The issue of fees is being examined. One of the ways of addressing concerns in that regard is to ensure investment in the professionals as they develop. On the capping of fees, a point raised by Senator Higgins and others, the pros and cons of doing that will be considered in the context of the independent review that will commence towards the end of this year. I am aware that it is not expected that in 2017 demand will outstrip supply and as such it is not anticipated that fees will necessarily be raised. I hope they will not. I have talked about the ways in which we are trying to be proactive in terms of ensuring that does not happen. Members will be aware from other commentary that capacity is expected to expand in 2018 in light of the capital and subsidisation supports. We will be looking at this issue in the context, in particular, of 2018 with the hope that in 2017, in light of the way in which we have moved in terms of investing in this sector, fees will not increase.

There were a couple of questions on the scheme, including whether it replaces the current four subsidisation schemes operated by the Department. The answer is "Yes". First and foremost the single affordable child care scheme is to amalgamate the four schemes into one and to, above all, make it easier and more user-friendly for providers and parents to understand in terms of how their child care requirements may be subsidised. The subsidisation scheme is particularly for afterschool care, which was a concern of Senator Ruane. Effectively, this subsidisation will provide for wrap-around care for afterschool care for children of preschool age and for all children aged up to 15 years. The purpose of the subsidisation is largely to enable that support. The free preschool places scheme also forms part of that support.

I would like to assure Senator Devine that I am very much aware of the programme for Government commitment in terms of equality and gender-proofing of budgets. It is an initiative I brought to the programme for Government. I hope this process will be in place in my Department post-2017. I will be encouraging the Committee on Budgetary Oversight and the independent office to ensure that process is ready to go for 2018.

I have visited many parts of the country to see what is being done in terms of youth services. I am delighted to say that the additional €5.5 million being provided for 2017 will enable me to ensure an increase of up to 10% in funding for youth organisations. I am aware there are some national youth organisations that are not part of this scheme. I hope there may be ways to include some of them in terms of the moneys available. I am well aware of the good work of BeLonGTo and I have received communication on the manner in which it has had to cut back on services because of cuts. On the point made by Senator Buttimer in regard to youth services in his area, funding for this sector has been increased. We will look carefully at how best to ensure it goes to support the extraordinary work being done in terms of youth services provision throughout the country and, in particular, to ensure the service is better represented in terms of geographic regions.