Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I ask for some clarity for childcare providers. When there was a Covid outbreak in their facilities a number of months ago, before September, they would have a contact within the HSE to call to do contact tracing and get advice on what to do with the management of their facility. Childcare providers are being treated like schools in that there is no more contact tracing. I disagree with that, but that is the decision which has been made. The problem childcare providers now have is they are not getting any advice from the HSE on how to act on an outbreak of Covid.

The decision is then left to the management. There are two problems with this. In terms of telling parents, they are more reassured knowing the decision to close down a facility was made by the HSE rather the manager of a facility. The other important point is that all these childcare providers provide a service partially paid by the State through the early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme. That service is paid for by the State through taxpayers' money. Pobal routinely, and randomly, visits service providers to make sure they provide such a service. If the service is not provided, such as when there is a Covid outbreak and the manager makes a decision to close down that facility, the State does not pay for a service not provided. However, it is totally different if the service is closed down on the recommendation of the HSE.

If it has not happened already, a situation will certainly happen in the future whereby Pobal will visit providers, find they were closed for a period of time and ask them to reimburse the State for the ECCE scheme which was not provided for those days. The providers need the protection of the HSE guidance to close down their facility. It is very important for them. They are doing an immense service in teaching and parenting kids. It is not their role to be a nurse or a doctor and make these decisions. They need that support from the HSE. I call on the Leader to help in that process for them.