Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1449. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total number of staff employed in early learning and care services who work directly with children. [12832/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In the most recent Annual Early Years Sector Profile data, services reported that 33,631 staff were working in early learning and care and school-age childcare services in 2022/23. This includes 27,902 staff working directly with children and 4,117 ancillary staff who work in areas such as management, administration, catering and maintenance. When these figures are extrapolated, it is estimated that a total of 37,060 staff were working in the sector across Ireland at the time of the survey, an increase of 8% on 2021/22. The estimated number of staff working with children has slightly decreased on the previous year by 8.3%.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1450. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the average annual staff turnover rate in early learning and care services, nationwide and by county, in tabular form. [12833/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Levels of staff turnover within early learning and care services are linked to pay and conditions. While Government is the primary funder of the sector as a whole, the State is not an employer of staff and neither I, nor my Department, set wage rates or working conditions.

The Joint Labour Committee process is the formal mechanism by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates for early learning and care services, which are set down in law through Employment Regulation Orders.

Outcomes from the Joint Labour Committee process are supported by the Government through the Core Funding scheme, which has an allocation for this programme year (2024/2025) of €331 million. In Budget 2025, an additional €15m was secured specifically to support employers meet the costs of further increases to the minimum rates of pay. This allocation, which is conditional on Employment Regulation Orders being negotiated by the Joint Labour Committee, translates into full year costs of €45 million for programme year 2025/2026.

My Department continues to deliver on a longer-term workforce strategy for the sector: "Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022-2028". Nurturing Skills aims to strengthen the ongoing process of professionalisation for those working in the sector. One of the five "pillars" of Nurturing Skills comprises commitments aimed at supporting recruitment, retention and diversity in the workforce, and it includes actions to raise the profile of careers in the sector.

The 2022/2023 Annual Early Years Sector Profile reported an increase in the number of services (contracted to a state scheme) from 4,435 (in 2021/2022) to 4,483 and an increase in sector staff from 34,357 (2021/2022) to 37,060. The below tables show average staff turnover rates for early learning and care services for the programme years 2021/22 and 2022/2023, nationally and by county.

The data relates to both early learning and care and school age childcare because of the large number of services that provide both early learning and care and school age childcare.

• The data is based on responses to the 2021/22 and 2022/23 Annual Early Years Sector Profile surveys which had overall response rates of 82.4% and 88.6% respectively.
• The turnover rate is calculated by dividing the number of staff that left the service in the previous 12 months by the total number of staff and expressed as a percentage. If the sum of vacancies and staff that worked in a service less than one year is greater than the number of staff that left in the last 12 months, the number of staff who left the service in the last 12 months is substituted in this calculation by the number of staff that worked in the service for less than one year. This substitution is made to differentiate between staff turnover and expansion. The turnover rate is calculated only for staff working with children.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1451. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of early learning and care services that have an annual staff turnover rate of 80% per year or more. [12834/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In the most recent Annual Early Years Sector Profile data 2002/23, 291 out of 3,996 (7%) early learning and care and school-age childcare services had an annual staff turnover rate* of 80% or more. The national average staff turnover rate for 2022/23 was 24.5% down 0.2% on the 2021/22 turnover rate of 24.7%.

Levels of staff turnover within early learning and care services are linked to pay and conditions. While Government is the primary funder of the sector as a whole, the State is not an employer of staff and neither I, nor my Department, set wage rates or working conditions.

The Joint Labour Committee process is the formal mechanism by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates for early learning and care services, which are set down in law through Employment Regulation Orders.

Outcomes from the Joint Labour Committee process are supported by the Government through the Core Funding scheme, which has an allocation for this programme year (2024/2025) of €331 million. In Budget 2025, an additional €15m was secured specifically to support employers meet the costs of further increases to the minimum rates of pay. This allocation, which is conditional on Employment Regulation Orders being negotiated by the Joint Labour Committee, translates into full year costs of €45 million for programme year 2025/2026.

A longer-term workforce strategy for the sector is in place: "Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022-2028". Nurturing Skills aims to strengthen the ongoing process of professionalisation for those working in the sector. One of the five "pillars" of Nurturing Skills comprises commitments aimed at supporting recruitment, retention and diversity in the workforce, and it includes actions to raise the profile of careers in the sector.

*The staff turnover rate is calculated by dividing the number of staff that left the service in the previous 12 months by the total number of staff and expressed as a percentage. If the sum of vacancies and staff that worked in a service less than one year is greater than the number of staff that left in the last 12 months, the number of staff who left the service in the last 12 months is substituted in this calculation by the number of staff that worked in the service for less than one year. This substitution is made to differentiate between staff turnover and expansion. The turnover rate is calculated only for staff working with children.