Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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93. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his Department has costed a publicly delivered childcare model in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38088/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Reform of the early learning and childcare sector has been a major focus of this Government.

The Programme for Government committed to 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.

Significant progress has been achieved through the development of this funding model, which represents a substantively different approach to working with early learning and childcare services, as well as unprecedented levels of funding, exceeding €1.1billion in 2024, to progressively move towards a sector with greater levels of public investment and greater levels of public management.

The framework for reform of the sector is set out in Partnership for the Public Good , the 2021 report of an Expert Group which was established to develop a new funding model for the sector. The key theme of the recommendations in the report was to strengthen State involvement and enhanced public management in the sector, in conjunction with increased State funding. This is intended to be 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.

The introduction of the new Core Funding scheme and its associated conditionality including in relation to staff pay and fee management; developments to the National Childcare Scheme and the Access and Inclusion Model; and the establishment of Equal Start this year represent the implementation of several of the specific recommendations in the report.

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.

Notwithstanding their terms of reference, the Expert Group included in one of its 25 recommendations 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.”

In January 2024 I established a new unit in my Department which includes as part of its remit to begin an exploration of public provision as called for in Recommendation 25. There are different understandings of what public provision means to stakeholders in the sector. Issues relating to staff employment, pay and conditions; ownership and management of buildings; operating models; governance arrangements; service offering; fees for parents; and the overall funding model will need to be examined. Each of these issues would materially influence the costing of any possible proposals. These issues, along with the wider potential implications of introducing an element of public delivery, are being examined by officials.

Separately, as part of the pre-Budget Party Political Costings, officials in my Department have provided cost estimates in response to certain questions, some of which I am advised include requests for costings for public delivery based on assumptions specified by the requester. As is customary, I have not had any involvement in this process and am not privy to any detail in relation to the requests or the costings that have been undertaken. I understand that these costings will be published by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery, and Reform following the enactment of the Finance Bill.