Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the really important issue of early learning and childcare. It was great to be able to watch the debate and see so many Senators contribute to what is a really important topic for so many families. It is clear from the discussions that we all recognise the importance of early learning and childcare for children and their families as well as for society and the wider economy.

In her opening statement, the Minister, Deputy Foley, described the constituent parts of Together for Better, the Government’s funding model for early learning and childcare, which has an allocation of €1.25 billion in 2025 alone. She also summarised how this funding model has brought benefits to children and their families, educators and practitioners, as well as providers since it was first introduced in September 2022.

Among the achievements since then are the high participation rates in core funding among services. Some 93% of providers are participating in year 3 of the scheme and there are a higher number of providers in absolute terms compared with other years. Senator Kyne raised the issue of the 7% who have not opted in and how we can support parents who may have faced an increase in fees as a result, as Senator Sarah O’Reilly noted. I will take this back to the Minister. However, a fee freeze is in place for the vast majority of services, namely, the ones that have signed up. There has been a 29% increase in the number of services offering the national childcare scheme and a 66% increase in the number of children supported to access the scheme to sponsorship arrangements. There has been a 78% increase in the number of children who benefit from the scheme more broadly in the past two years alone.Extended support for graduate-led provision outside the ECCE programme has also happened, and there is greater stability and sustainability in the sector. That is because of a minimum core funding allocation of €14,000, which is now in place. There is greater operational and financial transparency in the use of public funding and, importantly, in response to the issues with retention in childcare providers, there have been two consecutive rounds of employment regulation orders, which have resulted in improved pay for an estimated 70% and 50% of those working in sector. In my previous role, as a Minister of State in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I did a lot of work on that, and I was happy to sign one of those employment regulation orders. The new negotiations by the Joint Labour Committee are at an advanced stage and further improvements in pay are expected later this year through the updated employment regulation orders. These negotiations are being supported by €55 million in additional State funding, which has been ring-fenced for this purpose. Ultimately, all our available data points to an expanding sector. For example, data from the early years sectoral profile survey shows that between 2022 and 2023, the estimated number of enrolments in service rose by 8%, as did the estimated number of staff in early learning and childcare, so we can see it is growing in tandem and is at a good trajectory and rate.

Core funding application data shows that between years one and two of the scheme, capacity in the sector also increased by almost 8%, with analysis showing that increased capacity is the type of capacity with the highest demand relative to supply. Data from Tusla on service closures and new service registrations showed a net increase of 226 in the overall number of services in 2024. It has also, importantly, shown the lowest number of service closures in the past six years. We have more providers opening their doors and fewer providers leaving the market. There has also been international recognition of our efforts, with the European Commission recently endorsing the approach of the Government and welcoming what it called the substantial progress we have made.

While noting these strong indicators of progress, this Government has not shied away from the challenges that continue to persist in the sector, including high out-of-pocket costs for parents, the poor pay and working conditions for educators and practitioners and, ultimately, the lack of supply of places in certain areas and for certain cohorts, which featured frequently during this debate. The Government has, in the new programme for Government, set out a pathway to address these challenges. In addition to planned reforms to the funding model and increases in the levels of supply referred to by the Minister, Deputy Foley, a wider and ambitious reform agenda is under way in the area of early learning and childcare through the implementation of a range of other policies and programmes that deserve special mention.

For example, work is under way to develop the new implementation plan for the First 5 strategy, which covers 2026 to 2028, and implement phase 2 of the national action plan for childminding, which runs from 2021 to 2028. Continued work is under way to implement the recommendations in Partnership for the Public Good, the report of the expert group for a new funding model. Work is under way to implement Nurturing Skills, the workforce plan for the sector for 2021 to 2028, with commitments to developing career pathways, promoting careers in the sector and supporting staff recruitment. That all complements recent achievements and the future plans to improve pay and conditions of employment in the sector. There is also work under way to finalise an action plan for administrative and regulatory simplification. That follows on from detailed engagement with the sector last year and an independent review by INDECON of the end-to-end processes linked to departmental funding schemes. Planning work is under way for a new State agency to support the delivery of early learning and childcare, and that presents an opportunity to revolutionise the sector. The Building Blocks capital programme under the national development plan is being designed to meet current and long-term early learning and childcare infrastructure needs. There is also work under way to develop a national plan to further enhance Irish language provision in early learning and childcare sectors, which will be published later this year. There is ongoing work to review a legislative and regulatory framework for school-age children and a strengthened inspection system and to have appropriate enforcement powers as well.

The early learning and childcare sector is absolutely a public good and has benefits right across society. In recognition of this, the Government has agreed a really ambitious new plan and programme of work that is allowing us to build on the significant progress made over recent years. We are committed to continuing to invest in this sector, in particular through additional investment in the upcoming budget 2026, to achieve our combined objectives of affordable, accessible and quality early learning and childcare.