Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I welcome Minister of State at the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, to the House. I call on Senator Sherlock, who has four minutes.

Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House. I will start by offering my support to all those providing an early years service in this country, and pay tribute to all the providers and staff who go in day in, day out to do their very best for the families that they look after.Many services are distressed about the necessity and expense of requiring a chartered accountant. With regard to these new changes that have been introduced, many are frustrated about the way a day's absence is recorded and how they are penalised in the early years system, unlike in the primary and secondary school systems. There are huge issues with regard to the qualification requirements of AIM workers relative to SNAs in the primary or secondary systems. Even with those frustrations, they continue to go in day in, day out and do their very best by the children, by their staff and by the families.

Today I want to ask about the oversight procedures and the powers of investigation in place for those in receipt of core funding. Core funding is now very substantial, at €287 million. Is it enough? Absolutely not, but it is substantial nonetheless. Any organisation in receipt of core funding, whether in part or in full, has responsibilities towards fairness. I ask about this issue because I want to draw attention to what is sharp practice on the part of one early years provider that I have become aware of. In early May of this year, I came to learn that a number of families who had intended keeping their children in the childcare facility until the end of the summer were told their place would be terminated early, in June. The reason for that termination was because those families had decided not to send their children to the ECCE within that crèche, but to send them to an alternative ECCE from September. I have had contact with six families this happened to, but I am aware there are more.

Even more troubling is that the places of the older children are linked to the places of younger siblings. Specifically in one case, the family was asked if the child would be attending in September. When the parents said they were not sure, there was an impact for the younger sibling. The eight-month-old baby, who had just commenced their settling-in period in the crèche, had their settling in period put on hold until a decision was made about the older sibling. When the decision was made that the older sibling would not be continuing to the ECCE in September, the crèche rescinded the baby's place. Anyone with a small baby at the moment knows that trying to find a childcare place for a child under one is nearly impossible across the northside of Dublin and in many parts of the country. Because of that precise shortage, I know of another family who felt pressurised and forced to keep their older child in that crèche to preserve and keep the place of the younger sibling. I asked for the written documentation that was furnished to the parents, such as the handbook, the contract and the calendar, and none of those makes provision for the unilateral cancellation by the provider for the reasons set out above.

What protections or oversight procedures are in place for these practices? We know the sector is very tightly regulated in terms of physical infrastructure and staffing, and yet I see little or no guidance by way of what should be in place for an admissions policy and what are the grounds for termination. Furthermore, I note the national childcare scheme enters into a 12-month contract with providers, yet that same security is not afforded to parents. It appears there is nothing in the guidelines to ensure that once a child is enrolled, their place cannot be terminated by the provider at any time outside of the national childcare scheme eligibility requirements. Is it fair that a sibling’s place is tied to that of an older child? We have under the Education Acts very clear admissions policies and requirements for the primary and secondary school systems, but I am not sure those same requirements exist for the early years sector. I spoke at the start about the significant State funding that is now going into early years services. Obviously it does not wholly fund early years services, but there is a significant chunk of funding going in. The provider in question made a net profit of €1.3 million in 2022 and has €2 million in cash reserves. Of course, that is not all due to State support but it is part of it. The Department might say it has no responsibility over who a crèche decides to take on or dispense with, but that is not good enough.The vast majority of crèches want to do right by families but I believe that these sharp practices are not good enough and should not be stood over by the Department.

Eileen Flynn (Independent)
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Senator Sherlock will get the chance to come back in. I call the Minister of State.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for raising this important issue and offering me the opportunity on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and the Department to respond to her. To participate in the national childcare scheme, there must be a funding agreement in force between the Department of children and the early learning and childcare provider. The policy guidelines set out the rules governing the scheme, reflecting both the primary and secondary legislation. These guidelines do not stipulate how a provider should manage their admission policies or the termination of a child’s place. This is because early learning and childcare providers are private entities and are currently free to set their own admissions policies, which are agreed with or offered to a parent through a private contract that exists between the two parties. Neither the Minister nor his Department intervenes in these private issues. Early learning and childcare services are regulated by Tusla, the independent statutory regulator, under the Child Care Act 1991. Under existing regulations for preschool services and school-age services, from 2016 and 2018 respectively, each provider is required to have a complaints policy in place, outlining how concerns or complaints will be managed. If parents have concerns about their early learning and childcare service, they can lodge a complaint through the service’s complaints policy and procedures. If there are concerns regarding the operation of a service or the welfare and safety of children who attend, these concerns can be reported to the Tusla early years inspectorate. Contact details of the inspectorate are available on its website, or alternatively, I can provide the Senator with them afterwards.

There is no current requirement under the regulations for services to have an admissions policy. Last May however, the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, published Equal Start, a major new model of Government-funded supports to ensure children experiencing disadvantage can access and meaningfully participate in early learning and childcare. Under Equal Start, there is a commitment to provide guidance on admissions policies, and explore the possible introduction of regulatory requirements for early learning and childcare services to have an inclusive admissions policy. Equal Start delivers on a key commitment in the first five strategy and it is envisaged that full implementation of all 17 Equal Start actions, including the actions on admissions policies, will happen within the lifetime of this strategy by 2028.

I will continue speaking from the final script so it is in the round, if that is okay. As referred to in the opening statement, Equal Start commits to providing guidance on admissions policies and exploring the possible introduction of regulatory requirements for early learning and childcare services to have an inclusive admissions policy. Moreover, under Equal Start, consideration will be given to extending to early learning and childcare services the duties arising under section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014. Under section 42, public bodies as defined in that Act which can, subject to regulations, include organisations either wholly or partly funded out of public moneys, have a duty in the performance of their functions to eliminate discrimination, to promote equality of opportunity and to protect the human rights of its staff and the persons to whom they provide services.

Finally, an independent evaluation of the national childcare scheme will be commissioned this year. The issues raised by the Senator in her opening contribution can be further considered in the context of that evaluation. I have finished my scripts. It is unfortunate to hear the Senator raising on the floor of the Seanad today an example of where she says "sharp practice" is occurring. It brings into disrepute so many of the 4,200 really good childcare providers where sharp practice is not happening. The sharp practice in this instance arises when you are using the baby room but you are not taking on an ECCE space, and this leads to your exit very quickly after you came in. That sharp practice is not how mainstay providers operate, as the Senator and I know. It is unfortunate that she has had to raise such an incident today.

Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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I am extremely conscious that when I talk about the powers of oversight and the powers of investigation that I do not want a chill effect to go out to the vast majority of providers that I said at the start of my statement who do exceptionally brilliant work. I think there is an issue and a gap here - a shortfall - in terms of the lack of requirement for a clear admissions policy.I hear what the Minister of State said with regard to the requirement to have a complaints procedure. Of course, there is nowhere to go once that complaints procedure within the early years service is exhausted. I welcome what the Minister of State said with regard to the new equal start model. This is something we have been campaigning for for a long time to ensure children from disadvantaged backgrounds can access early years services.

There is a glaring gap here with regard to the lack of admissions policies. We need to see that requirement rolled out across all services. It should not be an additional bureaucratic burden. It should be a standard part of every early years service in terms of the paperwork it offers up every year. In particular, I do not believe the Department can cast a blind eye to the sharp practices I have conveyed to the Chamber.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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There is nobody who would wish to cast an eye on it. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has said that, when they are doing a review of the equal start later this year, there will be that opportunity to take it on. The other side of this is that there is a role for every one of the city and county childcare committees to ensure there is best practice, and that does not need to be regulated and legislated for. Best practice is ensuring we have open and transparent admissions policies, progress policies and how groups are actually supported and funded. To me, the big piece here is we have fantastic providers, and I hear clearly what the Senator is saying. She is not asking nor looking for extra powers to be put upon a bureaucratic system. What she is saying is there needs to be more openness and transparency. I do not believe in the complaints mechanism, because when a person enters a complaint, he or she is nearly out the door anyway because the goodwill and the trust have broken down. There has to be that admissions piece. There has to be a clear understanding. City and council childcare committees could play a role here.