Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and I will cut right to the chase. Two weeks ago, the Minister conducted a feature interview in The Business Postwith the journalist, Michael Brennan. It was a very large splash. In that interview, the Minister set out his plans for childcare in this country, a practice that is becoming the norm in modern politics whereby politicians brief the newspapers rather than the Dáil or the Seanad on their policies. In the interview, the Minister alluded to the fact his civil servants in the Department of Children and Youth Affairs are distinctly unenthusiastic about the 30 county childcare committees that provide support for approximately 4,900 childcare services in Ireland. He referenced a briefing note provided to him by them that states the structure does not lend itself to providing the national consistency sought by the Department. Michael Brennan is one of the most respected journalists in the building. He does not make things up and those comments did not come out of fresh air onto the pages. For a new Minister and, in fact, a new Deputy to belittle an entire system like that was, quite frankly, galling.

This followed a period when the childcare system in this country was working flat out to try to implement whatever was coming out of the Department on a daily basis during lockdown when nobody knew what they were doing. I do not think I have to tell the Minister that the 26,000 underpaid, overstressed and completely undervalued childcare workers in this country do not ring the Department's offices in Miesian Plaza for support on the ground; they ring the childcare offices in the counties, which they know intimately and trust and which provide on the ground support for those who need it and have done so for the 20 years since they were established. I know this first hand because my wife is at the coalface with them. Neither do they ring Pobal, an organisation the Minister praised in the interview, while belittling the childcare structures. Pobal is another quango that has grown bigger than anyone can comprehend. The transcript of its appearance before the Committee of Public Accounts last December, which I was at, is something the Minister should read.

In the interview, the Minister referenced the annual cost of the county childcare structure of €11 million, creating the impression of being reforming by axing the committees. Let us look at the money the Department spends. As the Minister said, 30 childcare committees receive €11 million to support the 4,870 childcare services throughout Ireland. When they were established in 2000, they received a total of €7 million. Back then, they supported 1,163 childcare services. We can see how childcare has grown in the country over the past 20 years, where some additional 4,000 providers are in the system. In that 20 years, by how much has childcare funding increased? It has merely gone from €7 million to €11 million to support an additional 4,000 providers. The system the officials think is not fit for purpose has managed to support an additional 4,000 providers with just an additional €4 million in support over that 20 years. In stark contrast, the big beast that is Pobal was managing a budget of €750 million when last we looked at it at the Committee of Public Accounts in December.For those same 4,800 childcare providers customer satisfaction with regard to that organisation would not be glowing, which I am sure he will find out when he engages with it.

I sincerely hope the Minister improves the lot of those in this sector. Lip service has often been paid to it but it has not received the support it requires. People believe this is a system that is awash with money but it is struggling to make ends meet and has the lowest-paid workers who are providing essential education. I stress that point. It is the first entry point to education for our youngest citizens. I hope that when the Minister engages in the reform that he promised he will acknowledge what is being done by highly-qualified professionals in the county childcare structure rather than trundling out what the civil servants wanted to see published in the paper.