Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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1025. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the childcare measures in place for front-line workers; and her definition of the term front-line worker. [9316/20]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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On Friday 1 May, the Government released its Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business, which sets out Ireland's plan for lifting COVID-19 restrictions through five phases. The re-opening of Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare (ELC and SAC) services will be guided by this framework and will be underpinned by the Government's Return to Work Safely Protocol, expert advice, available evidence and consultation with ELC and SAC stakeholder representatives and providers themselves.

The future stages of the Roadmap's re-opening of ELC/SAC services are stated as follows:

Phase 3 (29 June), opening of crèches, childminders and preschools for children of essential workers in a phased manner with social distancing and other requirements applying.

Phase 4 (20 July), opening of crèches, childminders and preschools for children of all other workers on a gradually increasing phased basis and slowly increasing thereafter.

The sector has many questions regarding how the Roadmap will be implemented to enable services to re-open. While the COVID-19 emergency called for overnight action on closures, it is my ambition that the phased re-opening will enable sufficient time and planning to re-open in an orderly, safe and sustainable manner. I would like to reassure providers, practitioners, parents and children that I will be doing my utmost to support the sector in offering as smooth a transition as possible to the phased and restricted re-opening of ELC and SAC services.

My Department is currently working with the sector to answer the many questions that exist. This is complex work and must balance a number of important issues, including those mentioned by the Deputy around capacity. Informed by NPHET and public health guidance, consideration is being given to a range of these issues, including:

- Minimising the public health risk, especially given the difficulty of maintaining social distancing among young children and those caring for them,

- Ensuring the need for any restrictions to be consistent with young children’s well-being and development needs and for ELC and SAC provision at each phase to be child-centred.

- Providing ELC for pre-school children, meeting parental demand for ELC and SAC as the economy reopens, and meeting the commitment to retain places for families who paid for ELC and SAC before COVID-19, all while restricting capacity and thereby reducing adult-child ratios. 

- Ensuring financial sustainability of the sector when capacity restrictions limit income and parents cannot afford to cover any higher costs with      higher fees.

- Ensuring a sufficient number of qualified ELC and SAC practitioners, given likelihood of reduced adult-child ratios and existing challenges with recruitment and retention.

A further key factor is that, in the best interests of children and parents, children should, as far as possible, be enabled to return to the childcare service they attended pre-COVID-19. Given the changed model of interaction and the time lapse since children last attended, it is important that there is as much continuity as possible for children. In light of the necessary changes, parents may also feel more reassured by placing their children in the care of childcare practitioners with whom they already have a relationship. Familiarity with other children attending the service and their parents may also help with the settling-in phase.

I am actively engaging with key stakeholders in the sector to make sure that the work on re-opening services is informed by the practical reality across the country. I have established and Chair an Advisory Group that includes representatives chosen by the sector, specifically the Association of Childhood Professionals, Community Forum, Early Childhood Ireland, National Childhood Network, PLÉ and Seas Suas. The group also includes Tusla, Pobal, SIPTU and Childminding Ireland. The first meeting of this Advisory Group took place on 13 May and I held follow up meetings on 15 and 19 May. A schedule of weekly meetings has also been agreed.

The proposals for re-opening which are in development will have due regard to Public Health guidance over the phases of easing of restrictions.  I am conscious that the proposed timelines are subject to further NPHET advice, and decisions from Government.

Identifying essential workers, who will be eligible for childcare as part of this reopening, is part of the wider Government effort to ensure that society and business are re-opened in a carefully managed and safe manner.

There are a number of key decisions to be made across Government that will impact significantly on the ELC and SAC sector, including the future of emergency measures such as the Revenue operated Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection operated Pandemic Unemployment Payment, and other business supports. The proposals for re-opening ELC and SAC services necessarily interact with these schemes and so I will be relying on whole of Government plans, which impact the ELC and SAC sector.

It is my fervent hope that every early education and childcare service  around the country is currently considering how it can be part of helping Ireland get back to work, and how it can support children from June 29th in the very difficult circumstances they have experienced in recent months.  

I will undertake to update the Deputy as soon as the work on re-opening services is at a more advanced stage.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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1026. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the measures and works which will be required in childcare facilities going forward to meet Covid-19 requirements. [9317/20]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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On Friday 1 May, the Government released its Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business, which sets out Ireland's plan for lifting COVID-19 restrictions through five phases. The re-opening of Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare (ELC and SAC) services will be guided by this framework and will be underpinned by the Government's Return to Work Safely Protocol, expert advice, available evidence and consultation with ELC and SAC stakeholder representatives and providers themselves.

Expert guidance on the safe reopening of childcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic was published by the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) on Friday, 29 May. The guidance recommends use of a “play pod” model which restricts interactions between closed groups of children and adults as an alternative to social distancing, on the basis that social distancing is not possible between young children. Based on advice provided by the HPSC I do not propose to change Regulations in relation to either the adult-child ratios or the floor-space requirements for ELC or SAC services as such changes are unnecessary where "play pods" are in use.  

Services are now being asked to apply the guidance to their setting and determine what capacity they may offer. It is expected that a significant amount of capacity will be available in individual services that reopen in the summer, subject to, for example, their space, room layout and staffing availability.  Whilst there are 4,500 Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare services in the country, fewer than 2,000 of these normally remain open in July and August.

I have been engaging intensively with a number of organisations representing the childcare sector, through an Advisory Group. A range of additional guidance and resources to assist the sector to prepare for reopening are currently being prepared and will start to issue in the coming days and continue over the remaining weeks before opening.

Since 2015 my Department has administered an annual capital funding programme, under which service providers registered with Tusla are invited to apply for capital funding to increase the capacity of their services,  or to maintain and improve their services.

In 2020 I secured €7.2m in capital funding for early learning and care (ELC)  and school age care (SAC).  I launched the application programme for the 2020 Capital Programme on 28 February but this had to be suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

I am currently reviewing the allocation of the 2020 capital budget and I intend to launch a new capital grant programme in the coming days.  In doing so, I am conscious that demand for childcare services after COVID may be reduced, at least initially. I believe the best use of capital funding in 2020 will be made through supporting services and places already in existence, to reopen after the closure period, and to support them meet the new HPSC guidance.

The application process for the 2020 Capital programme, which will be administered by Pobal, will go live shortly.