Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A Chathaorligh, may I clarify a point I made last night? In the course of my contribution last night, I referred to my daughter's early arrival. She was born at 26 weeks. When I checked what I had said, I did not realise I had said she was born at 20 weeks, instead of at 26 weeks.

I take this opportunity to wish everybody a happy Easter. Many teachers are on holidays, but they are paid during the holiday period. However, the providers of, and those working in, the early years sector do not get paid during the holiday period. The early years sector is suffering because the Department of Children and Youth Affairs is marking them as different, even though they play a significant role in our children's education. The early years sector is faced with increasing difficulties. We are talking a great deal about fairness and equality but we need to look at this sector and do something about fairness in it. The Government introduced the Children First Act 2015 and provided an overview of child welfare and protection in Children First - National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children 2017. Every early childhood education and care service in Ireland must provide child protection training for staff and develop a child safeguarding statement for the premises. While primary school teachers can avail of time off to undertake this training, the training must be completed by early years staff in their own time. A great deal was made some years ago about the ECCE scheme, allowing parents free access to child care. The capitation rate is €64.50 per child for 38 weeks but that level of funding does not come close to covering the cost of delivering the scheme. While the sector experienced an upsurge in the number of parents being able to send their children to this all-important stage of education, the providers suffer because they must constantly make up the shortfall even to the extent of taking no pay. This is the truth. At times the providers are not paid for their services. They must process all the paperwork and do everything for the Department in their own time and at their own expense. More needs to be done to invest in this service. The provider gives a high quality child care service. It is not enough to provide funding to parents. Funding needs to be applied to keep the services open or the initial funding will not work. Early years service staff are now recognised as qualified professionals but they are not paid nearly enough. County Carlow has one of the highest percentage of qualified early years staff, yet many of them cannot afford to live on the wages they are being offered. That worries me. This sector is so poorly paid that often graduates from early education working in the sector have to find employment somewhere else.

I will be requesting that the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs comes to the House. I know the issue has been addressed in the Seanad before but this unfair system needs to be addressed. More investment in the early years sector is required.