Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is important legislation to children who need care and parents who want to access the workplace and other places and need their children cared for.

I welcome this legislation. It is important we extend our funding model for childcare to the extent that we ensure childminding is recognised for the professional service it is. Childminding has come an awfully long way in the past 30 years. It used to be that the woman down the road cared for children, whereas now there are people who are educated in childcare and child development, have professional qualifications and want to create a home environment for a child and to care for other children as a service, and who want to have that as their income. It is, in the main, a female-based service by the nature of it. If we look at the childminders who were registered in the past, we see that is the case.

In every way, I completely concur with this Bill. I believe it is important that if the State is putting money into childminding and recognising its professional standing, it is important we have some regulation. I am hopeful that, because the Bill is coming through now, we will see a big uplift in the budget to ensure we have funding for childminding services.

Parents need a flexible response. The idea there are overnight stays and other types of provision within childminding leads to a more nimble response to childcare than registered childcare providers in crèche and early years settings. This is more ideal for parents who work shifts. There are a whole heap of things for which this legislation is important.

I am wary of the legislation from the perspective of the current inspectorate. We have long-established regulations regarding crèche services and an inspectorate that goes into those services. The inspectorate may go in and find fault in a service that three years previously it found to be perfect with regard to the sense of the architecture, the establishment, the placing of a door or the absence of a door.The application of inspections in the here and now has an arbitrary nature. That was one of the recommendations in the pre-legislative scrutiny report, which drew attention to the need for predictable criteria from the childcare provider's perspective. I know that because I included it on foot of my experience of advising childcare providers. If that is the case where there is a formalised setting and an off-the-shelf architectural model of baby rooms, toddler rooms and so forth, and if we are cherishing that model as a model of care for children, I am wary of how the application of regulations to somebody's home would be implemented.

I can understand the apprehension of childminders. We have all received emails from them. I have met and spoken with a number of them. The regulations propose that "a registered provider of a childminding service shall ensure that children attending the service have access to age appropriate toys and materials to facilitate play and development." Who decides what is or is not appropriate? That is just one line from the regulations. Who sets that? When I have represented fully established crèches, I have observed that what is deemed appropriate in one inspection is probably not deemed appropriate in the next inspection. It is not that they are using worn-out toys. Everything is renewed and advice is taken. There are fantastic consultants out there who provide services to crèches. We need to be a little more specific than we are here because we are dealing with people's homes. We need to make sure we are not creating a mini crèche. The whole purpose of childminding is that it creates and reflects the home model. We should ensure we are doing so adequately. Given that some elements of the current inspectorate regime are already unsatisfactory, applying them to the home model is somewhat problematic.

I worry about people not registering and making sure they come outside of an obligation to register. I worry about the definition of terms such as "non-family". What happens if it is a partner in the family, a girlfriend or a very close friend? One of my daughter's godmothers is my friend. We are not related. What if she was minding her? I appreciate that we have to have certain numbers, but some family arrangements will not be captured in this. On the other side of it, as we heard at the committee on children today, the Ombudsman for Children is seeking to be included in the inspectorate system so that when it is on a statutory level, there will be an option to refer to the Ombudsman for Children if there is a problem in childcare services. Childminding would be included within that. The Office of the Ombudsman for Children has made recommendations on that. It feels that when there are complaints within services, we need to make sure there is someone to go to beyond that. This would apply when there is subjective hearing of complaints, or when complaints are made but do not go any further.

I am delighted with childminding. It is necessary that we extend it and that the offering to parents is widened as far as it can be, because it is essential for accessing the workplace. We saw during Covid-19 that childcare is essential for the functioning of our society. As I read through the regulations - I appreciate that there is feedback to come on them - I can understand why childminders are wary. I am glad to hear that the Minister is in dialogue with Childminding Ireland, which is excellent and will speak up well for the professionals it represents. I worry that if we regulate too tightly, we may put people off and we may end up suppressing the number of services rather than growing them. The services in question are a very necessary part of this system. The Bill is to be commended. Obviously, I will support it all the way, but we need to consider those matters.