Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for coming in to respond to my Commencement matter which concerns the national childcare scheme. This scheme has a stated objective of improving children's outcomes, supporting lifelong learning, making work pay, reducing child poverty and tangibly reducing the cost of quality childcare for thousands of families throughout Ireland. They are very noble objectives and I know the Minister is very passionate about delivering on them. I thank him not just for coming in here today but for meeting me and early years childcare service providers from my constituency in Dublin Central.

Apart from supporting children and parents, the national childcare scheme is at its core a labour activation scheme. While that is an important objective as well, it is doing a disservice to some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children in our society and my constituency. I thank the Minister for meeting the Dublin City Community Co-op. This involved the Community After Schools project in Dublin 1, the Daughters of Charity St. Mary's Early Years Service in Dublin 1, Lourdes Youth and Community Services in Dublin 1, the North Wall Community Development Project in Dublin 1, and the Robert Emmet Community Development Project and the South Inner City Community Development Association from the south inner city. The Minister has given a lot of his time and has listened to them and commissioned a review of the national childcare scheme, which is very important.

However, those six services are already catering for approximately 300 young people and have a waiting list of more than 200. Estimates are that a minimum of 50% of the children attending those childcare services come from significantly disadvantaged backgrounds. The disadvantage can be multiple challenges. It can be everything from housing poverty to the extremes of housing homelessness to mental illness to physical illness to systemic intergenerational disadvantage. The Minister is passionate about breaking that cycle of disadvantage. I know he understands and values the potential power of changing people's lives that early childhood education can provide and that these childcare service providers are not providing a babysitting service. They are not even just providing an education service; it is a whole social infrastructure and social wrap-around service.

As the national childcare scheme applies to them, the funding model and accessing the funding is not equal for all children. There is an advantage in terms of the way the funding is distributed to the children of parents who are in employment because, at its core, it is a labour activation model. The Minister and I know the right supports during these early years can make life-determining outcome changes for these children. I commend the Minister on providing support through the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, this year but we are looking at a cliff edge. We are looking at the end of the EWSS. Longer term, we need real sustainable funding. I believe we need a DEIS-type model for the early years sector and childcare services. We need to see it as part of the formal education system. I hope the Minister can provide the House with an update on how his work is progressing in this area.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Senator for raising this issue, which my Department and I are monitoring on an ongoing basis and through formal reviews. I have met with the Senator and services in her area and I know she is particularly engaged on this issue.

The national childcare scheme, NCS, represents the first ever statutory entitlement to financial support for early learning and childcare. It marks a shift away from previous schemes, which were based on medical card and social protection entitlements, to a progressive system of universal and income-based subsidies. Under the NCS, significantly more families are eligible for support. The NCS is designed so that those on the lowest incomes receive the greatest support. It is also designed to ensure access provided is at a level necessary to support positive child development outcomes regardless of whether parents are in work. This approach is taken in other jurisdictions.

Where parents are not engaged in work or study, the NCS subsidises up to 20 hours per week. Where parents are engaged in work or study, the NCS subsidises up to 45 hours per week. The definition of work or study is broad, covering all forms of work or study arrangements - full-time, part-time, week-on, week-off, and zero-hour contracts - making the scheme as flexible as possible. Indeed, the minimum hours required to engage in work or study to qualify for enhanced hours is very low at just two hours per week. With this design feature, the NCS attempts to strike the right balance between enabling access to early learning and childcare services, given the benefits this confers on children, and supporting parents to engage in work or study, given the impact this has on alleviating the poverty that impacts so many children.

I understand there will be children in exceptional circumstances for whom these supports are not enough. This is why we have the sponsorship process. Under the sponsorship arrangements, these children's families can avail of up to 45 hours free early learning and childcare with no work or study requirements to be met. I know there were some issues in the initial roll-out of the sponsorship process. I have engaged with Tusla and some of the other sponsorship bodies. We now know that more than 2,000 children are sponsored in services throughout the country. I expect this number will continue to grow.

The NCS is designed to be dynamic and responsive to decisions of Government. The scheme has been in place for almost 22 months. This has been during Covid when everything has been so badly disrupted. My Department has engaged an external consultant to review the first year of the scheme. This includes its usage by socioeconomically disadvantaged families and providers serving socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. I specifically asked for this element to be included in the review in light of the concerns raised with me by the Senator and others over the past year. This review is almost finalised and I will be considering its findings with a view to ensuring it meets its policy objectives and functions in the best interests of families and children.

A separate but related piece of work involves the expert group that has been meeting in respect of designing a new funding model for the sector. This is due to report in November. This group has been tasked with designing mechanisms to deliver additional funding to ensure greater levels of affordability, accessibility and quality of early learning and childcare and sustainability. This is also looking at the issue referenced by the Senator, namely, the introduction of a DEIS-type model for childcare. That review will arrive in November but I am very conscious of the upcoming budget. I am aware of the high-level recommendations this review will bring forward, and I am engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I have told it that childcare is my priority in terms of my Department's budgetary bid this year. I continue to engage with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on the wider funding question.

Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his response. It is certainly encouraging, especially his personal commitment to the early years childcare sector. I welcome his broader review of the sector. The NCS resulted in a funding cut of more than 30% for them. I know this will be captured in the review and report, and I acknowledge the funding that has been put in place during Covid. It is critical. We need to raise this with the Leader and possibly have her write to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform on this issue. We need to ensure adequate funding is provided to the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and his Department to ensure every child has access to adequate and appropriate early years childcare. The difference it can make to the outcomes in a child's life is enormous.Those providing childcare services are organisations that go way beyond what the State could ever pay them in terms of care, investment and support, not just in education but in the social welfare of these children and their families.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Throughout Covid we have supported all services and through the employment wage subsidy scheme we have also had a specific sustainability fund for services facing issues due to Covid or due to unintended consequences of some parts of the national childcare scheme. This fund has been providing additional supports to some services, particularly in areas of disadvantage.

The State puts a significant amount of money into the childcare sector, at €630 million every year, but we all know that compared with other European countries this is not enough. My determination is to continue to grow the investment we put into that sector. We have to ensure we are getting results in terms of quality, a reduction of cost for parents, the sustainability of services and the pay that childcare professionals get. I am looking to address this wider issue in the budget. I am particularly conscious of the difficulties faced by providers in areas of disadvantage. This specific issue is also a matter on which I am engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Sharon Keogan (Independent)
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On behalf of the House I congratulate the Minister on his recent engagement to his partner, Ray. Every good wish for the future.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Acting Chair. I appreciate it.