Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1108 and 1110 together.

The Programme for Government contains a number of commitments for early learning and childcare, including reforming the system to create one that brings together the best of community and private provision and the development of a new funding model for affordable, accessible, sustainable and high quality early learning and childcare.

An Expert Group was established in September 2019 to develop a new funding model for the early learning and childcare sector. Under their terms of reference, the Expert Group was not asked to propose changes to the current model of delivery (i.e. privately-operated provision), rather that the Group should seek to further achieve policy objectives of quality, affordability, accessibility and contributing to addressing disadvantage in a privately-operated system through increased public funding and public management.

In December 2021, Government approved the 25 recommendations contained in the Expert Group report, Partnership for the Public Good: A New Funding Model for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare. The recommendations were accepted in full by Government and implementation of this new funding model is well underway.

Of the 25 recommendations, three are grouped under the title 'Role of the State'. In particular, the final recommendation states that, “[I]n the medium term, the Minister should mandate the Department to examine whether some 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 and enhanced public management in 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 early learning and childcare, with new responsibilities on both sides.

In September 2022, I launched Together for Better, the new funding model for early learning and childcare that supports the delivery of early learning and childcare for the public good. This new funding model supports the delivery of early learning and childcare for the public good, for quality and affordability for children, parents and families as well as stability and sustainability for providers. Its primary purpose is to improve pay and conditions in the sector as a whole and improve affordability for parents as well as ensuring a stable income to providers.

Together for Better brings together three major programmes, the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, including the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) and the new Core Funding scheme. A fourth programme – the Equal Participation Model is under development.

This new funding model being implemented aims to transform the sector to one that is increasingly publicly funded and publicly managed. This is the start of a multi-annual investment plan – with investment this year exceeding €1.1 billion – achieving the First 5 investment target five years ahead of time. Full implementation of all recommendations, including recommendation 25, which would likely involve an estimate of cost and timeline for delivery of a portion of public provision, will be progressed in the coming years as additional funding is secured through the annual Estimates process.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1109, 1112 and 1113 together.

Tusla, the independent statutory regulator for early years services, including ELC and SAC services, is responsible for maintaining the register of services under the Child Care Act 1991. Where an ELC or SAC service ceases operations, the registered provider is required by law to advise Tusla of this and the service will then be removed from the public register. Tusla provides my Department with the verified closure figures a month in arrears, to allow time for verification.

Data from Tusla on service registrations shows that the number of services that closed in 2023 are lower than previous years. At end 2023, there were 86 new registrations of ELC services and 115 closures. This compares with 83 new registrations and 141 closures in the same period in 2022.

At end 2023, there were 210 new standalone SAC services that have registered with Tusla and 52 standalone SAC services that have closed. In 2022, 130 new standalone SAC services were registered with Tusla while 42 standalone SAC services closed.

A table on ELC and standalone SAC closures and new services (below) covers the period Jan 2019 to Jan 2024.

There is considerable diversity in the reasons given for closure by providers. While some services have closed for financial reasons, many have closed for other reasons (e.g. retirement of the owner/manager, property related, availability of staff, and reduction in child numbers). To note the reasons for closure are not verified by Tusla and are self-reported.

My Department has a range of supports in place to avert closures, or assess closures of services – similar to the work of the Stakeholder Response Team, which was proposed by Early Childhood Ireland in their recent publication.

Through Case Management, City/County Childcare Committees and Pobal work together to assess and provide support to early learning and childcare services experiencing difficulties. This support focuses on operational as well as financial supports to assist services to manage their immediate difficulties and transition to a more sustainable model of delivery.

Where services close, City/County Childcare Committees have successfully supported the reopening of closed services. In the event of closures, City/County Childcare Committees also assist parents with sourcing alternative early learning and childcare places where possible.

A new Supply Management Unit was established in my Department in January 2024. This new Unit includes an Early Learning and Childcare Supply Management Advisor and Coordinator on secondment from Dublin City and Wicklow Childcare Committees. A key part of the Supply Management Unit’s remit will be to develop a planning function, for monitoring, analysing and forecasting of investment needs, in line with a recommendation of the Expert Group in their Report – Partnership for the Public Good. The development of this function - akin to the Department of Education’s Forward Planning Unit - will be supported by the Data Analytics Units in the Department and a statistician, recently seconded from the CSO, to work in the Early Learning and Childcare Division.

TUSLA REGISTRATION OF SERVICES*

2019	ELC	SAC Standalone*	Total
Total New	93		93
Total Closures	196		196
Net Difference	-103	0	-103
2020	ELC	SAC Standalone	Total
Total New	91	164	255
Total Closures	197	12	209
Net Difference	-106	152	46
2021	ELC	SAC Standalone	Total
Total New	65	142	207
Total Closures	141	15	156
Net Difference	-76	127	51
2022	ELC	SAC Standalone	Total
Total New	83	130	213
Total Closures	141	42	183
Net Difference	-58	88	30
2023	ELC	SAC Standalone	Total
Total New	86	210	296
Total Closures	115	52	167
Net Difference	-29	158	129
2024 (January only)	ELC	SAC Standalone	Total
Total New	7	12	19
Total Closures	1	2	3
Net Difference	6	10	16

* Registration of SAC Services only commenced in 2020

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Tusla is the independent statutory regulator for early years services, including Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) services, and is responsible for maintaining the register of services under the Child Care Act 1991. Where an ELC or SAC service ceases operations, the registered provider is required by law to advise Tusla of this within 28 days of ceasing operation and the service will then be removed from the public register. The Tusla register is publicly available on their website a month in arrears, to allow time for verification.

My Department already has a range of supports in place to avert closures, or assess closures of services.

Through Case Management, City/County Childcare Committees and Pobal work together to assess and provide support to early learning and childcare services experiencing difficulties. This support focuses on operational as well as financial supports to assist services to manage their immediate difficulties and transition to a more sustainable model of delivery.

Where services close, City/County Childcare Committees have successfully supported the reopening of closed services. In the event of closures, City/County Childcare Committees also assist parents with sourcing alternative early learning and childcare places where possible.

A new Supply Management Unit was established in my Department in January 2024. A key part of the Supply Management Unit’s remit is to develop a planning function, for monitoring, analyzing and forecasting supply and demand for early learning and childcare provision, in line with a recommendation of the Expert Group in their Report – Partnership for the Public Good. The new until will also develop policy to respond to evidence of supply and demand misalignment, including through the administration of capital funding.