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

I am delighted to hear all the Senators' contributions. As always, it helps me considerably in my work. I know they prepare and think deeply about these issues.

At the beginning of the autumn or the end of the summer, if I were a child care worker, I would join a union. Those in SIPTU know that I support their campaign. Many of the issues raised today relate to the pay and conditions in the child care sector. Obviously the sector in general needs more investment. I got more money this year. My Department received a 5.7% increase in its funding. It is in the top two or three Departments in that regard. This shows that not only I but also the Minister for Finance and my Cabinet colleagues recognise the importance of continued investment. Even in more restricted times, I was able to secure a significant amount.

As many Senators are aware, the focus of the previous budget was on affordability of child care and reducing costs for families. The focus of this budget is on quality by getting more money into the services, which I hope will be provided to the workers in order to improve pay and conditions. I chose to increase ECCE capitation because that is the cornerstone of what service providers do. A small service with 11 children and a level 6 practitioner will receive an increase of €1,881 over 38 weeks. An average-sized service with 20 children and a graduate room leader will see its income rise by approximately €5,000. A moderate-sized ECCE service with 70 children will see its income increase by approximately €14,000. A large ECCE service with 120 children, where half of its rooms are availing of the standard capitation and the remainder are at the higher capitation rate, will enjoy and income increase of €22,230.

Those are just a few different case studies showing that, based on what I have done, money is going into services. That increase supports the services themselves in terms of their costs and also the workers in terms of their pay and conditions. It is up to the providers to make those decisions. As Senators are aware, extending the entitlement to two full years increases income to a provider. The €18 million secured for programme support payments next year goes to the providers.

To the extent that money was available, I targeted funding the providers with the absolute hope and expectation that some of it would be shared with the people working in the sector. I have made the suggestion of sectoral employment orders but while I support it, I cannot do it. We need to have an employers' representative body to negotiate with unions. We need more workers to join unions and we need an employers' representative body to negotiate and go to the Labour Court in order that it might come to Government with a recommendation on appropriate pay and conditions. I cannot do any more than encourage that to happen. It is not up to my Cabinet colleagues or even up to me; it is up to the profession to move that forward. My Department would certainly make a submission in respect of that process. As Senators will know, we have begun the independent review of costs and this will contribute to the process of identifying appropriate pay and conditions.

I am getting as much money as I can, probably more than some of my colleagues. Much of the impetus for this rests with those in the sector and I plead with them to take up the invitation to act. I need Senators to support me in that regard. In August, I started to do a lot of work on the budget. I would like to see greater numbers not only joining the unions but also doing whatever they do - I know what they do because I was a member of a union in a past life - in terms of agitating to ensure increased investment.

A Senator asked how much it will cost and how long it will take to get to where we need to go. I do not know. However, we hope that substantially more money will be available in the budgets for 2019 and 2020. That is why it would be fantastic to have sectoral employment orders as we move forward. We will certainly have the independent review of costs. I will be at the table again trying to persuade people by using many of the arguments Senators have raised here. I encourage them to continue to raise them. I brought those arguments to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, and he was persuaded by many of them. I said that irrespective of what we get, we need to ensure that we offer the sector the opportunity to sustain itself, particularly over the next year while we wait for, hopefully, increased investment.