Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “Seanad Éireann:” and substitute the following:

“- welcomes the extensive commitments by the Government to address long-standing challenges in the early learning and childcare sector;

- welcomes the increase to over €1bn per annum in State funding for the sector, reaching the investment target set in 2018, five years ahead of schedule;

- welcomes significant prioritisation by the Government of measures designed to: - substantially reduce out-of-pocket costs of early learning and childcare for families;

- increase the pay and improve the conditions of early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners;

- place early learning and childcare providers on a solid, sustainable footing;

- recognise and bolster the vital public good contributed by the sector; - acknowledges and welcomes the major achievements of the new funding model – Together for Better – which brings together three major programmes, the National Childcare Scheme (NCS), the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, including the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), and the new Core Funding Scheme, in particular: - the roll-out and on-going enhancements to the NCS, which is providing subsidies – both targeted and universal - to record numbers of children this year, with additional funding of €121 million secured in Budget 2023, set to further substantially reduce out of pocket costs of early learning and childcare to families from 2 January 2023;

- the roll-out of the ECCE programme– which enjoys uptake rates in excess of 95 per cent and has removed barriers to accessing pre-school education, with data from Growing Up in Ireland showing that more than 60 per cent of low

income families would not have been able to send their child to pre-school without this programme – as well as work underway to enhance this programme, with an evaluation now underway as a precursor to putting the ECCE programme on a statutory footing;

- the roll-out of the award winning AIM, that is supporting more than 5,000 children with a disability each year to access the ECCE programme, and the commitment already made to enhance and expand AIM, following the completion of the AIM evaluation, that is due to be published in early 2023;

- the new Core Funding Scheme – with an allocation of €259 million in its first year and participation rates of 94 per cent services – that has supported:

- the historic Employment Regulation Orders for the Early Years Services Sector, which came into effect in September this year providing new minimum hourly rates of pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners, increasing the wages of an estimated 73 per cent of those working in the sector;

- the introduction of a new fee management system which means initially no increase in fees from September 2021 for the September 2022 to August 2023 programme year, which, in tandem with developments to the NCS, will deliver enormous benefits to families;

- the introduction of a requirement of services to offer the NCS to all eligible families, which has given rise to a 10 per cent increase in the number of services offering the NCS, thus substantially widening access to this State support;

- a significant growth in capacity allowing greater access for children and their families, as demonstrated by a 16% increase in place hours since 2019/2020, an increase in place hours where there is lower supply and higher demand, including baby place hours (increased by 8%), toddler place hours (increased by 22%), and school-age place hours and an increased opening hours both in term and out of term-time;

- the additional funding of €28 million secured in Budget 2023 for year 2 of Core Funding, €4 million of which will be used to remove the experience requirement on both graduate premiums under Core Funding, with the allocation of the remaining €24 million to be informed by the evidence, including data from Year 1 of operation and an independent review of the finances of small, sessional services that will be completed in Quarter 1 2023; - acknowledges and welcomes the wider reform agenda underway in the area of early learning and childcare, through implementation of a range of other policies and programmes, including: - the €70 million Building Blocks Capital Programme, under the National Development Plan, that is designed to meet current and long-term early learning and childcare infrastructure needs;

- the work underway to implement the National Action Plan for Childminding (2021-2028), with a commitment to opening the NCS to childminders at the earliest possible opportunity;

- the work underway to implement other recommendations in Partnership for the Public Good, including a new Tackling Disadvantage fund, whereby services will be provided with a proportionate mix of universal and targeted supports to support children and families accessing their services who are experiencing disadvantage;

- the work underway to implement Nurturing Skills, the Workforce Plan for the Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare Sector (2021-2028), with commitments to develop career pathways, promote careers in the sector and support staff recruitment, complementing recent achievements and future plans to improve pay and conditions of employment in the sector; notes:

- the recent OECD Country Policy Review of Early Childhood Education and Care in Ireland concluded that ‘Ireland is currently pursuing a strong policy agenda for Early Childhood Education and Care, with the adoption of a long-term whole-of-government strategy for babies, young children and their families covering the period 2019 to 2028’ and acknowledged that ‘the country has committed itself to improving access, affordability and quality of ECEC provision’, as well as the recent OECD data that shows Ireland’s performance in supporting families, and particularly lone parent families, with the cost of early learning and childcare is markedly improving – even before the impact of enhancements of NCS under Budgets 2022 and 2023 or the fee freeze is taken into account; specifically, OECD data that shows Ireland having the highest decrease in early learning and childcare costs to families across the EU over the period 2019-2021 and that shows net childcare costs as a share of the household's net income for lone parents on low income in 2021 falling below the EU average for the first time;

- while noting that further developments and investment are required, whilst recognising that there are many positive and progressive elements to the current early learning and childcare sector and acknowledges the pathway for improving access, affordability, quality and sustainability are set out in national policies, which Government has committed to implementing.”

The Minister of State is welcome to the House. I highlight the scheduling of this debate. I am glad my children have their father to look after them and put them to bed tonight. We talk about trying to encourage diversity and encouraging young people and women into politics and into these Houses, then we put a debate on between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. I will not see my children until tomorrow night, or maybe until Friday. We have to be real about this. There is irony in having a debate on childcare at such a time. It is not on the proposers because they do not do the scheduling, but if we are serious in these Houses about diversity and women and politics, then we must start to change how we do our business, because this is nonsense. If I were a lone parent, I might have my four children sitting in their pyjamas in the Public Gallery because I would have no one else to mind them.

However, I am always positive about childcare and the importance of it because, with four children, I am well aware how important it is. It is critical for their learning and their socialisation in their community and friend groups. My own wee fellows have such friendships and love of their teachers and the people who work in the area. That shows me the importance of the work the people, who are usually women, do and how they treat my children and how they taught them. I have such a debt to the women who looked after my children, especially in preschool.

Senator Sherlock rightly said there was a huge amount of funding. We have come from such a low base. We have had 100 years of inaction. We have had 100 years of telling women to mind their children. Due to economic need, or just blatant ambition by women who wanted to go out to work, the private sector pulled in. We are dealing with the consequences in our early years and our elder years because the State did not stand up and because it said women would do it. Women did it but we farmed the work out to the private sector. We are dealing with the bad consequences of that now. I hope we are beginning to deal with it better.

We have made available the biggest budget ever in the history of the State. We have reached the €1 billion milestone five years ahead of schedule. I am not saying that is enough. I agree with Senator Sherlock we should be working towards universal childcare. We must be working towards equality and equal access for every single child. My children did not get equal access. I was not able to work because I was not able to afford full-time care. My children used the ECCE scheme. They would not have got into that if it had not been free. I and my partner had to cut our cloth. He worked and I stayed at home. My ambitions were put on the table for a couple of years, until I got into politics. The irony of that is I now see my children hardly at all. It is critical we move ahead with this.

I was taking notes on points Senator Sherlock was making and it is hard to disagree. We need supply. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, quite often about increasing the capital programme. Locally in County Louth, people are coming to me and telling me they have two rooms full and could fill two more if only they could get access to the capital programme. They could have all the children in perfect, proper buildings. We must incentivise this and build the services. The services should be State-owned. We should not be putting money into new private services. I am not sure whether it is Government policy but we should not be putting money into building private services. We should put money into building public services and make it part of the education system. We should also start working cross-departmentally. The Minister of State has looked at this from her portfolio in disability services. Early years is often the first place where children's special needs are identified by the workers there. They know the children as they see them every single day. They see things we might miss because they are trained. They know what to look out for and what the markers are. They are then able to signpost that to therapies. I do not like the word but it is about a holistic circle of looking after our children and their every single need. We could talk about the Department of Education. We have schools that are idle from 3 p.m. onwards, in most cases. They are empty and we have parents struggling to find after-school care. We must start incentivising.

I thought I had much longer to speak. I have so much to say about this but I agree we must continue to be strong in pushing for further investment. I am conscious the Minister of State is behind this, as the Government is. It has put its money where its mouth is and advanced the biggest budget ever. It will continue to do so and, with practical support, the situation will get better.