Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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659. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth her plans to support the early childhood sector making childcare an attractive and sustainable career option; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6056/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The role of the early years educator and school-age childcare practitioner are valuable ones and they play an important part in supporting children's development, learning and care.

Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022-2028, which was launched in December 2021, aims to strengthen the ongoing process of professionalisation for those working in early learning and care and school-age childcare. It contains a range of commitments to raise the profile of careers in the sector and to support recruitment, retention and diversity in the workforce.

Early years educators, school-age childcare practitioners and childminders play a key role in supporting children’s development and well-being, working in partnership with families. Recognising their central importance for the quality of provision, Nurturing Skills aims to support the professional development of the workforce and raise the profile of careers in the sector. Commitments in Nurturing Skills are organised under five pillars:

1. Establishing a career framework;

2. Raising qualification levels;

3. Developing a national Continuing Professional Development system;

4. Supporting recruitment, retention and diversity; and

5. Moving towards regulation of the workforce.

Successful delivery of commitments under the five pillars will be supported by three "key enablers" that are identified in Nurturing Skills:

* Improvement in pay and conditions of employment;

* Coordination of the quality support infrastructure; and

* Ongoing engagement with the profession.

While Government does not set rates of pay, it has made funding available, through Core Funding, to do so as negotiated by employer and employee representatives in a Joint Labour Committee (JLC) process. Within this process, over the past two years two rounds of Employment Regulation Orders (EROs) have been signed into law to progressively increase wage rates for various grades in the sector with the support of additional Core Funding investment. For the 2025/26 programme year, €45 million has been specifically ringfenced to support employers with additional wage costs conditional on new EROs being agreed by the JLC.

Complementing wider Departmental policies to improve pay and working conditions, to support recruitment and retention, and to streamline administration and regulation, Equal Start was launched in early 2024. Equal Start includes a commitment to roll out well-being supports for educators and practitioners and supports for early learning and care and school-age childcare settings to enable more supportive working environments to be created for staff.