Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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491. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his attention has been drawn to a poll (details supplied) which states that 78.1% of those who answered agree that there should be State-run childcare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6605/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy for bringing this poll to my attention. I am conscious of the need to deliver reforms to the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) sector so that it meets the needs of parents, providers, those working in the sector, and, most importantly, children.

The Programme for Government commits to reforming the early learning and childcare system to create one that brings together the best of community and private provision.

Not including special Covid funding arrangements, an estimated 60% of funding for ELC and SAC services comes from the State. The First 5 strategy published in 2018 committed to at least double expenditure in the sector by 2028 to approximately €1 billion.

An Expert Group to develop a new funding model for ELC and SAC was established in 2019 to consider how best to structure this additional investment. It was independently chaired and comprised of national and international experts across multiple fields. It met 21 times and has now completed its work.

The report of the Expert Group, , was published on 7 December 2021 following consideration by Government and acceptance of its 25 recommendations. Work has now commenced on implementation of these recommendations. The report of the Expert Group is available here: .

The new funding model outlined in Partnership for the Public Goodcomprises four key elements: two new elements (Core Funding and Tackling Disadvantage funding) and two elements which are developments on the existing funding approaches of the Early Childhood Care and Education programme and the National Childcare Scheme.

The vision of the Expert Group as articulated in the report is for a sector that is "increasingly publicly funded and publicly managed, delivering a service for the public good, through a partnership between the State and providers, to the benefit of children, parents, practitioners, and society overall". The report envisages a substantially increased role for the State in a range of areas, including fee management, capacity planning, provision of information to parents, planning the development of the sector, supporting services, and managing centre closures. The report also recommends that the Minister should mandate the Department to examine, in the medium term, whether an element of public provision should be introduced alongside private provision.

Taken together, these recommendations reflect a key theme of the report, which is the importance of strengthened State involvement in the running of the sector, in conjunction with increased State funding. This is underpinned by a cultural shift to a partnership relationship between providers and the State that reflects the public good dimension of ELC and SAC.

Announcements in Budget 2022 signaled the commitment to the first stage of implementation of the Expert Group’s recommendations. In particular, Budget 2022 allocated €69 million to a new Core Funding stream, equivalent to €207 million in a full year. Full implementation of all recommendations will be progressed in the coming years as additional funding is secured through the annual Estimates process. Progress on the implementation of the Expert Group’s recommendations will be reported in the context of the Annual Implementation Report for the First 5whole-of-government strategy for babies, young children and their families.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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492. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his attention has been drawn to the fact that some childcare providers were forced to close for two additional weeks in 2022 due to staffing shortages and rising costs, and yet parents must still pay the full fee even though they have no childcare for this period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6606/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department contracts with early learning and childcare (ELC) services to provide ELC and provides a range of subsidy schemes which partly or totally cover the cost of the ELC provided to families. These schemes include ECCE, the free pre-school scheme and the NCS and CCSP which provide partial or full subsidies to family for ELC fees. Currently over 60% of funding for ELC is provided by my Department.

ELC services are provided by for private enterprises, either privately owned or operated by community organisations. ELC services are free to set their own policies. The current contracts between the Department and providers do not deal with the issue of services charging fees during periods when the services are closed. This is a contractual matter between parents and providers.

My Department continues to provide significant financial supports to early learning and care (ELC) and school aged childcare (SAC) services throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Currently, in the case of pod closures or full service closures due to Covid-19, my Department continues to pay the full subsidies for those children registered in one of my Departments’ childcare funding programmes.

The Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), will remain available to the sector until April 2022, with a continued exemption to the turnover rule for employers in the sector. Since August 2020, ELC employers have been entitled to access the EWSS, with an exemption to having to demonstrate the 30% drop in turnover that applies to other sectors. The EWSS covers approximately 80% of staff costs or 50% of total operating costs.

I would encourage parents who are experiencing difficulties with any aspect of service provision to contact their local City or County Childcare Committee (CCC) for assistance. Contact details for all of the CCCs are available at .