Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Cathaoirleach for choosing this matter and I welcome the Minister of State. I acknowledge the range of supports and investment provided by the Government to the Department of children to assist parents in affording childcare, which has been greatly beneficial. I acknowledge also the work of the city and county childcare committees, whether through the early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme or the national childcare scheme, to assist parents who are looking for places and families who are looking for support and assistance with childcare matters at a local level. My concerns relate to that cohort of parents who are under considerable stress because they cannot get a place in any local childcare facility or crèche because there are capacity issues. I am sure it is not unique to my part of the world but is nationwide. I have been contacted by parents in Rosscahill and Oughterard, for example, in my area of Galway who say the local crèches are full and that there are waiting lists. The parents of newborn babies have been told it will be three years before a place will open in a childcare facility. I am not in any way blaming the wonderful facilities that exist, which provide excellent places and supports locally, and I am sure they are under great pressure from parents seeking places, which is understandable.

What are the Government and the Department doing proactively to increase the availability of places? What supports have been put in place for somebody who has a building or is interested in leasing a building long term or medium term in a locality where there is a need for places? Supports are paramount. I understand that, similar to the forward planning section of the Department, there are measures within the Department to this effect. Our colleagues will debate Private Members' business later today in respect of school places. Just because there is a forward planning section in the Department of Education does not mean there is never a problem accessing school places. I am suspicious as to whether this initiative within the Department of children will solve the problem, even if it may assist in identifying where there are gaps. If an individual wishes to get involved in opening a crèche where there is an evident need and demand in a locality, what supports are in place to assist that person, company or business? Where a facility wishes to open a second site in a locality, what supports are in place? We know about the pressures and difficulties in getting staff and the stringent and necessary requirements that apply in respect of child safety, such as the training, the health and safety measures and all that goes with opening a childcare facility. It is an onerous task and not something anyone can just decide they are going to do and then open a facility tomorrow morning.

I do acknowledge the additional supports that have been provided and will be provided in the autumn in respect of childminding. Budget 2024 opened the national childcare scheme to parents who use childminding. From next autumn, they will be available for supports in line with the commitment under the national action plan for childminding. I hope that can assist in the availability of places as well.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. Ensuring that high-quality early learning and childcare is affordable and accessible to all children, in particular children from vulnerable backgrounds, is a key priority for the Government. Data from the latest annual early years sector profile from last summer estimated that 14,088 children were enrolled in early learning and childcare in Galway. This represents an 8% increase from 13,047 in the previous year. The data also indicated that 50% of services had waiting lists and 50% had at least one vacant place. This year's annual early years sector profile will commence in May and will provide an updated picture of the capacity in Galway.

The Department of children funds 30 city and county childcare committees that provide support for families and providers with early learning and childcare matters. The Galway childcare committee is in a position to match children and families to services operating with vacant places and to engage proactively with services to explore possibilities for expansion, especially where there is unmet need. The Department understands the Galway childcare committee also provides a variety of supports to potential new services. This includes information on the requirements for setting up a new early learning and childcare or childminding service and these supports include local site visits for potential new providers with follow-up information on the requirements for planning, fire regulation, Tusla regulation and funding. The Department is continuing to develop its capacity to analyse supply and demand for early learning and childcare and in January 2024, it established a new supply management unit to identify areas of supply and demand mismatch and to develop appropriate policy responses to address those gaps. In addition to designing and implementing capital funding programmes, the new unit will develop the forward planning capacity of the Department as it continues to enhance the level of public management in the sector.

The national development plan, NDP, recognises early learning and childcare provision, along with housing, school and healthcare facilities, as an integral part of national infrastructure. A total of €250 million has been committed over the lifetime of the plan to 2030. In 2024, €18 million in capital funding has been set aside under the building blocks capacity grant scheme to increase the number of full- and part-time places, especially for those aged one to three years.This will be followed later in 2024 with a further scheme that will fund larger-scale extension projects also focused on increasing the number of places for age one to three. This scheme will be announced in the coming months and it will run over the course of 2024 and 2025. Therefore, as well as capital funding, core funding has demonstrated its effectiveness in supporting capacity growth in the sector since it was introduced first in 2022. The allocation for year 2 of the scheme provides for a 3% growth in capacity, which has materialised, and the allocation of year 3 of the scheme provides for further growth of another 3%.

In addition to physical infrastructure, one of the constraints on capacity is having sufficient staff employed to make places available. It has been recognised for many years that our low pay in the sector has been the main cause of staff recruitment and retention difficulties. As the State is not the employer, neither the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman nor the Department of children can set wage levels or determine the working conditions in the sector. However, there is now, through the independent joint labour committee, JLC, process, a formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates for different roles in the sector. In September of 2022, the first JLC-negotiated employment regulation order, ERO, for early years services came into force. The EROs, which are supported by core funding, provide new minimum hourly rates of pay for various roles in the sector. The JLC continues to meet. The Minister understands that it has recently submitted to the Labour Court new draft proposals to increase all current ERO minimum rates by 5% and also removing the requirements of three years work experience for graduate minimum pay rates, which will see further improvements and minimum rates of pay. This may assist in making available additional capacity in existing services.

Finally, it is noteworthy that the Government is moving shortly to regulate home-based provision of early learning and childcare. That will enable parents who are using child minders to avail of subsidies through the national childcare scheme.

Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for the response. We have to wait and see how the new supply and management unit in the Department, which has been operational since January 2024, responds to the issues in a locality. Yes, the local childcare committee can identify where there are vacancies and where there is need but there is no point in telling someone in Rosscahill or Oughterard that there is a place on the far side of Galway city or in Clifden or in Carraroe. Obviously in most cases, as well as bringing children to childcare people might also have to do the school runs. They may have part-time or full-time jobs. There has to be a very local match to the demand. That is the concern that I have. Yes, places can be identified but they have to be identified locally.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I take the Senator’s point that the matching of demand and supply has to be very local and that applies in a county which has large distances between different towns and villages but investment in early learning and childcare services has quadrupled in the last nine years. It went from €260 million in 2015 to €1.1 billion this year. That increased investment has focused on improving access to affordable and quality early learning and childcare services. The data shows that there are increasing numbers of places for children. There is an increase in the number of services in operation, an increase in the number of staff in the sector and of parents availing of subsidised early learning and childcare.

The Minister and the Government recognise, however, that more needs to be done to ensure quality early learning and childcare is both affordable and accessible to the children and their families and they will continue to prioritise further investments to meet the objective.