Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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1204. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the length of time the Covid-19 rules on the number of children in a pod will be in place for childcare facilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39428/21]

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1216. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will advise on a matter raised in correspondence (details supplied) relating to childcare in County Waterford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40050/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1204 and 1216 together.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has recommended the use of play-pods in Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) services as an alternative to social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The purpose of ‘play-pods’ is to limit the number of people a child has contact with, to facilitate contact tracing, and to support close, positive interactions between children and their adult caregivers. This system also reduces the amount of contact adults have with each other.

The public health advice from the HPSC is that while there is no evidence base on which to define a maximum play-pod size, play-pods should be kept as small as is likely to be reasonably practical in the specific childcare context.

The maximum adult-child ratios required by the Early Years Services Regulations, 2016 and the Early Years Services (Registration of School Age Services) Regulations 2018 are unchanged and so services must continue to operate within them. In most cases there should be either one or two adults in a ‘play-pod’ in order to keep play-pod sizes small. Therefore, play-pod size will be naturally limited by those ratios.

As play-pods are an alternative to social distancing, they will need to stay in place for as long as social distancing is required.  Current advice from the HSE is that play-pods are likely to be in place until the end of 2021. The HSE, in conjunction with my Department, is keeping this guidance under review and will update as appropriate.  

My Department funds 30 City/County Childcare Committees around the country who are available to assist parents in identifying services in their areas. Information on these is available at myccc.ie. Information on services registered with Tusla, including contact details and inspection reports, is available on Tusla's website.