Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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1485. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the estimated full year cost of abolishing childcare fees for parents through increasing the universal childcare subsidy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39124/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department does not hold individualised fee data for parents. These are local agreements between parents and early learning and childcare providers that reflect diverse needs and usage patterns, with fees varying within and across counties.

My Department has not, heretofore, routinely gathered data on parental fee income to early learning and childcare services other than through occasional research studies, e.g. the independent review of costs. The independent review of costs undertaken by Crowe in 2018 on behalf of the Department found that approximately 40% of the total income to the sector in 2017 came from parental fees at a time when annual state investment in the sector was €466 million. This percentage varied significantly across services. Many services relied entirely on State funding while a small proportion of service relied exclusively on parental fees.

Core Funding Partner Services are required to provide financial returns in late 2023 detailing their income and costs, which will provide up to date insight into the financial operations of services and allow an accurate estimate of income from parents fees to be derived, in addition to income from the State and surplus.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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1486. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the estimated full year cost of meeting a union's (details supplied) wage increase claim for childcare workers if the increase was to be paid for by the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39125/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I firmly believe the level of pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners should reflect the value of their work for children, families, society and the economy.

The State is not the employer and therefore does not set the pay or conditions for employees in either early learning and care (ELC) or school-age childcare (SAC) services.

However, there is now, through the Joint Labour Committee (JLC) process, a formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates for ELC and SAC services, which are set down in Employment Regulation Orders (EROs). This is an independent process from the Department and neither I, nor my officials, have any role in the proceedings of the JLC and any associated negotiated minimum pay rates, the cost of which is borne by the employer.

Among other objectives, Core Funding supports the ability of service providers to meet the additional costs resulting from the EROs for Early Years Services, which came into effect in September 2022, as it provides increases in funding to early learning and childcare service providers to support improvements in staff wages, alongside a commitment to freeze parental fees.

On the basis of 2022 data supplied by Partner Services taking part in the Core Funding scheme, the estimated annual cost to employers of raising all the minimum pay rates specified in the EROs (for different grades and qualification levels) by the rates proposed in the document to which the question makes reference (making assumptions specified below in relation to equivalent increases for other roles specified in the EROs) is approximately €89 million on a full-year basis, inclusive of employer-related costs.

In relation to the estimates above, the following should be noted:

• The cost estimates are based on staff who had an hourly wage recorded in service providers’ submissions for Core Funding, but the Core Funding data has been extrapolated to provide an estimate for all staff working in the sector.
• Current wage data was initially provided by service providers in August 2022, before the EROs for Early Years Services came into force, but has been adjusted upward on the assumption that all staff now earn at least the legally-binding minimum rates of pay specified in the EROs.
• The cost estimates are for the additional cost to employers of bringing staff from their current (since August 2022) wage or the minimum pay rates set out in the EROs, whichever is higher, up to a pay rate of €15 per hour or €2 above each of the minimum pay rates in the EROs, with the exception of graduate managers for whom a minimum rate of €20 per hour is used as the basis for calculation, in line with the wording of the document to which the question makes reference.
• Calculations are based on wage-data available at a point in time. Some services may have increased wages more recently, which would reduce the cost to services of moving from current wage-rates to a €15 per hour minimum wage-rate.
• The cost estimates only relate to staff and managers covered by the current EROs, i.e. the estimates exclude the cost of ancillary staff.
• The cost estimates do not attempt to account for the potential cost implications for the wages of staff who are currently earning more than €2 per hour above current ERO minimum rates.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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1487. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the estimated full year cost of expanding the number of childcare places to meet an estimated unmet demand for early years and after-school care currently; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39126/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The availability of high-quality early learning and childcare is a key Government priority. My Department monitors early learning and childcare capacity on an ongoing basis, with a particular focus on responding to the unmet early learning and childcare needs of families.

The annual data captured by Pobal on behalf of my Department - through the Early Years Sector Profile Survey - is one important data source that allows us to monitor supply and demand. In addition to this survey data, the Department also relies on data from the register of services held by Tusla, data provided by services as part of their application for Core Funding and has also conducted several surveys with parents. Since 2020, five parent surveys have been undertaken by Ipsos MRBI on behalf of the Department.

Data captured from the 2021/22 iteration of the Early Years Sector Profile for example indicated that the vacancy is 8% across Dublin for children aged 0-2. Data collection for the 2022/23 Early Years Sector Profile is currently underway and will give an updated position.

Together for Better, the new funding model, brings together the three Early Learning and Childcare programmes, Early Childhood Care and Education, including the Access and Inclusion Model, the National Childcare Scheme and Core Funding.

Investment in early learning and childcare is at unprecedented levels with public funding for the first time reaching more than €1 billion in 2023 for early learning and childcare – a clear demonstration from Government of the value of the sector.

Core Funding, worth €259 million in Year 1 and €287 million in Year 2, an 11% increase, intentionally introduces Fee Management in a sustainable and considered manner, allowing for substantial increases in the total cost base for the sector without additional costs being passed on to parents.

Core Funding has provided evidence of increased capacity in Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare. Initial analysis shows the increased capacity is the type of capacity that is in highest demand relative to supply (i.e. more baby and toddler places as well as school-age places).

Some €69 million has been allocated over the period 2023-2025 to the early learning and childcare sector under the revised National Development Plan (NDP). This will enable significant capital investment in early learning and childcare across three pillars:

Building Blocks - Improvement Grant;

Building Blocks - Capacity Grant; and

Building Blocks - Innovation Grant.

The Building Blocks - Improvement Grant is now closed. Under this Pillar, €9 million was allocated earlier this year in grants ranging from €35,000 to €75,000 for energy upgrades and retrofit projects.

Work is currently underway on the design and delivery of Pillars 2 and 3, which have a combined allocation of €20 million in 2024 and €40 million in 2025.

The Building Blocks – Capacity Grant will fund an expansion of existing services in areas of under supply. Funding will also be provided to support the development of new services, where most needed.

The network of 30 City/County Childcare Committees across the country are in a position to match children and families to services operating with vacant places and engage proactively with services to explore possibilities for expansion among services, particularly where there is unmet need. Parents experiencing difficulty in relation to their early learning and childcare needs should contact their local City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) for assistance. Contact details for CCCs may be found on www.myccc.ie.