Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is good to see the Minister and he is very welcome. I commend Senator Currie on raising this topic. It is very important and close to my heart. I worked on the SIPTU campaign on recognition for a number of years.We had a really good meeting with SIPTU representatives the week before last, and Senator McGreehan was in attendance on the day.

I agree with Senator Currie on the broad scope of this motion. It is very clear that there needs to be a lot more tightening up in terms of planning. There needs to be assurance that we have childcare facilities in place wherever they are needed. Sinn Féin has no problem supporting the motion but I want to put it in context. The context was put very well by SIPTU when its representatives were here before us the week before last. They said the following on behalf of the workers in the sector:

We are caught in a vicious cycle of low pay, a staffing crisis and increased stress and burnout which is undermining our profession and the viability of services to children and families.

Low pay is the biggest cause of this staffing crisis. Despite recent pay increases, the minimum rate of pay for an Early Years Educator is €13.65 per hour, €1.15 below the Living Wage of €14.80. Simply put, we cannot afford to stay in our profession.

Government and employers must accept their responsibility and tackle the low pay crisis in a meaningful way. Interminable delays to pay agreements may benefit employers in the short term, but ultimately undermine the sustainability and viability of the sector.

I am on record as having recognised that the Minister established an ERO. He has put additional funding into the sector, which I welcome. It was a good, progressive move. The difficulty the workers find themselves in is that the employers are dragging themselves each week and each year to delay any further ERO. That has to be recognised; it is a fact. The SIPTU representatives told us that directly. Therefore, there is a problem. Is the problem all about funding? It is certainly the cause in part, but, in fairness to the Minister, there is another issue. The issue is fundamentally one that we all need to address. Do we have the correct model to deliver childcare? I do not believe we do. If we were to invent primary school education tomorrow, would we really leave it to the private sector? Of course, we would not. Imagine if we did. It would be in crisis constantly.

If we are going to argue – I agree with the argument – that the State should step in where required to secure childcare facilities, why are we not following through logically and arguing that the State should then provide public childcare? Why are we the outlier in Europe? When I work in Europe at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, I am lucky enough to meet colleagues from the main European countries and they explain to me how childcare provision works in those countries. It works through public provision. I do not understand why that part of the conversation has not happened in this State.

Ultimately, there is a contradiction between the desire to increase rates of pay and conditions for workers in the sector and the necessity of private employers to make profit in the sector. It is a problem. In fairness to the Minister, he has taken some steps to try to improve pay and conditions in the sector. I recognise that but it has not gone far enough. I can see what the problem is at present. It is that the employer groups are saying they do not really want to pay any more, even though the turnover rate is 25% in the sector at the minute. How do you build a quality early years education sector, to give it its correct title, when we have these challenges? The State and Government need to be courageous enough to consider the logical way forward and do what we would do for any other part of the education sector. We know from research that early years education is more important in terms of the value it adds to children than primary school education. That is what the science tells us. Again, it raises the question of why we are leaving it to the private sector.

I commend Senator Currie on the motion. It is good and we need to do much more in planning to ensure we have facilities in place and that they are filled, but I do not agree with the idea that we should just lease back the facilities to the private sector. If we do that, we will not fix the bigger problem. Fundamentally, the bigger problem, which was acknowledged very well in Senator Currie’s speech, is that we do not have sufficient early years provision. My argument and that of Sinn Féin is that we are not going to fix it by leaving it to the marketplace or by largely leaving it to the marketplace and subsidising it to some degree. What we need to do is remember the importance of early years education.

A significant move I call for is the movement of this whole area to the Department of Education. That is where it belongs.