Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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26. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will provide a detailed update on the work and meetings of the interdepartmental group established to address the issue of child care and related issues. [19797/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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My Department currently provides approximately €260 million annually to early years and school-age care and education services. This funding is largely directed towards a number of childcare programmes, which aim to improve the accessibility, affordability and quality of early years and school-age care and education. These programmes support the provision of early years and school-age care and education for more than 100,000 children each year.

To ensure that all the benefits of this (and future) investment are fully realised, it must be evidence-based and strategically coordinated. It is critically important that any investment is designed to achieve the best outcomes for children and their parents. Accordingly, I have established an Inter-Departmental Group to develop a coherent whole-of-Government approach to investment in early years and school-age care and education.

Membership of the Group includes representation from right across Government, including the Departments of Education and Skills, Jobs and Innovation, Justice and Equality, Social Protection and as well as the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform, Finance and an Taoiseach.

The work of the Group is being informed by research and evidence of best practice and by existing policy commitments, including those set out in Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, the National Policy Framework for Children and Young People.

To inform its work, the Group has already solicited the views of key stakeholders, interested parties and the general public through a number of consultative processes, including an Open Policy Debate on Future Investment in Early Years and School-Age Care and Education Services, which was hosted by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs on 31st March 2015 and attended by some 40 invited representatives including parents, providers, academics, childcare committees, and NGOs.

It has also held a series of bilateral discussions with relevant Government Departments, including the Departments of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Education and Skills, Finance, Jobs and Innovation, Justice and Equality, Public Expenditure and Reform and Social Protection.

Two separate online consultation processes - one with the early years sector and one with parents and guardians - have also taken place and the approximately 400 submissions received from the early years sector and almost 1,000 submissions received from parents and guardians are currently being analysed. Reports on these consultations and the Open Policy Debate are currently being compiled and will be published in due course.

The Inter-Departmental Group will submit its report to Government by end June 2015.