Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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368. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of inspectors employed by Tusla to inspect all services in the early years sector. [18672/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Officials in my Department contacted Tusla to ascertain the number of inspectors currently employed to inspect Early Years services and confirmed that, at year end 2016, a total of 45.4 Whole Time Equivalent inspectors were employed. A number of administrative staff are also employed to support the registration and inspection process.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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369. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the cost for inspectors employed by Tusla to inspect all services in the early years sector in one budgetary year. [18673/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Officials in my Department contacted Tusla who confirmed that the cost for inspectors employed to inspect early years services was €3,348,931 in the budgetary year 2016. This figure includes pay and non-pay costs.

Officials in my Department have asked Tusla to respond further to the question re the cost of inspecting all services in one budgetary year and this information will be provided to the Deputy within ten working days.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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370. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if an allocation of additional funding has been made towards community-based crèches which face imminent closure; and if so, the amount and the number of those community services being targeted with the additional funding. [18674/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Childcare regulations introduced for newly-registering pre-school services on 30 June 2016, and for existing services on 31 December 2016, require all staff working directly with children in to have a at least a major award at level 5 on the National Qualifications Framework in early childhood care and education, or a qualification deemed by the Minister to be equivalent.

This regulation has been extensively welcomed as being in the best interests of children.

I recognise however the impact increased regulation is having on community settings – from my own experience, from a number of meetings I have had with providers and representative groups, and from the Early Years Forum I established to ensure that providers’ voices are heard. In 2017, I provided for €1m of additional funding to be made available to childcare providers who have been facilitating the training of Community Employment participants, to ensure that regulatory changes do not impact on service delivery or the availability of childcare places. Officials have been working with Pobal and Childcare Committees Ireland to get funding out to services impacted by the change in relation to CE scheme participants; and I understand that contracts to enable payment have now issued to services. Funds will be disbursed without delay once these contracts are signed. Funding will be provided in two phases, the first phase to cover advertising and recruitment costs, and the second phase, which will follow more detailed financial analysis of services, in the coming weeks.

In addition, funding of €14.5 million will be made available for the first time in 2017 for ‘non-contact time’ to recognise the increasing volume of work done outside of direct contact hours with children.

The sector has taken the initiative of commissioning and completing research highlighting the challenges that they face and I am acutely aware that we need to get the funding model right for these services. This is a complex issue; and I hope that providers will appreciate that we have had to move to tackle the most urgent issues first, designing a new model of eligibility for families - the Affordable Childcare Scheme, tackling the CE scheme issue, and providing funding for ‘non-contact time’ for the first time. I remain committed to addressing other sustainability and quality issues, particularly in disadvantaged areas. The last two budgets delivered a 35% increase each year in funding for childcare. However, it is recognised that there is a need to continue to invest and a strong case will be put forward for more resources in 2018 and beyond.