Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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1148. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the estimated cost to roll out the routine delivery of Aistear across the childminding sector including those childminders not registered with Tusla. [25166/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Roll-out of the Aistear curriculum framework is supported through initial education programmes for early years practitioners (including childminders) as well as through mentoring supports. The National Síolta Aistear Initiative provides funding for mentors in City/County Childcare Committees and Voluntary Childcare Organisations to offer mentoring and quality improvement supports to early years settings. The primary purpose of the initiative is to increase awareness, understanding and implementation of the Síolta national quality framework and the Aistear curriculum framework. €500,000 was allocated to the Initiative in 2017.

The cost of extending quality supports to non-registered childminders cannot be readily estimated because of the lack of firm data on the number of childminders. An expert working group on childminding, which submitted a report to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in March 2018, estimated that there may be approximately 35,000 childminders, but noted that the figure is an estimate because the very large majority of childminders are outside the statutory regulatory system. Fewer than 120 childminders are currently registered with Tusla.

The expert working group's report, Pathway to a Quality Support and Assurance System for Childminding, outlines a vision for the development of the childminding sector in Ireland over the next decade, and sets out short, medium and longer-term recommendations. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs is currently considering the recommendations contained in the report, with a view to developing an action plan within the next year for the wider regulation and support of the childminding sector, including supports for the quality of childminding practice.