Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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825. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if consideration will be given to the circumstances outlined in correspondence (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10403/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulation 2016 provide that each employee working directly with children attending a service must hold at least a major award in early childhood care and education at Level 5 on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) or a qualification deemed by to be equivalent. While under the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Grant Funding Agreement, registered childcare providers must ensure that pre-school leaders hold a at least a major award in early childhood care and education at Level 6 on the NFQ.

This particular service provider runs a pre-school in a rural area in Co Limerick. She made an application to my Department for qualifications assessment last year. The ultimate outcome of this application was that she met the minimum requirements under the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016, and not the minimum requirements under the ECCE Grant Funding Agreement.

It is my understanding that this service has no member of staff who meet the requirement for a room leader at the standard capitation rate for ECCE (i.e being a relevant major award at Level 6 or more on the NFQ). Following a direct appeal by the service provider, my Department permitted her to run the ECCE programme for the 2016 / 2017 programme year, as an exception to the usual Grant Funding Agreement requirements. This was permitted on a one-off basis and this is the only provider within the ECCE scheme for whom this temporary exception was made.

In allowing this exception, my Department was mindful that this service is in a rural area, which lacks many alternatives for pre-school provision. Also, I understand that when the qualification assessment was communicated to this service provider, it was nearing the end of the 2015 / 2016 programme year, and she had many bookings already for the 2016 / 2017 programme year.

My Department took into account the service provider's situation specifically that the local community would have very little time to make alternative arrangements, given the lack of ECCE services in the area. The service provider was clear that it was her intention to retire following the 2016 / 2017 programme year, but that she wished to offer the 2016 / 2017 ECCE year in order to facilitate and support the local community and give adequate notice that her service would not function beyond this time.

In view of the circumstances, and to support the service provider's efforts to provide an ECCE service for her community for a further year, an official from my Department wrote to her and stated that she would be allowed to deliver the ECCE programme for the 2016 / 2017 programme year. However, this situation as it stands cannot be allowed to continue beyond that time frame under any circumstances.

I wish to emphasise that my Department cannot allow services which are not compliant with the contractual requirements, under the ECCE Grant Funding Agreement, to continue to remain within our programmes. Therefore there can be no flexibility on the outcome of this service provider's qualification assessment unless she adjusts the staffing in her service to meet the contractual requirements of the ECCE programme. If she does not employ a room leader with the appropriate qualification, she will not be allowed into contract for the 2017 / 2018 programme year.

I would also like to inform you that my Department has no prior knowledge that this service provider is a retired primary school teacher, and has received no documentation to that effect.