Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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840. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if she will examine the use of the Joint Labour Committee in setting wages for early years educators; if she will review this mechanism; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17433/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Pay is one of a number of issues impacting staffing levels and the level of pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners does not reflect the value of their work for children, families, society and the economy. As the State is not the employer of staff in the sector, neither I nor my Department can set wage levels or determine working conditions.

In December 2020, a short process began to examine the possibility of regulating the pay and conditions of employment of practitioners in early learning and care and school-age childcare, and to examine the suitability of establishing a Joint Labour Committee.

Dr Kevin Duffy, former Chair of the Labour Court, was appointed independent chair of this process. Dr Duffy's report of that process was that the establishment of a Joint Labour Committee was the most appropriate means by which pay and conditions of employment in the sector could be addressed. The Early Years Services Joint Labour Committee was established in July 2021.

The Joint Labour Committee is the formal mechanism where employer and employee representatives can negotiate terms and conditions of employment including minimum pay rates for different roles in the sector. Over the past two years two rounds of Employment Regulation Orders have been signed into law to progressively increase wage rates for various grades in the sector.

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.

The Programme for Government commits to continuing to implement Employment Regulation Orders to attract and retain early years educators

In Budget 2025, an additional €15 million was secured specifically to support employers meet the costs of further increases to the minimum rates of pay. This allocation, which is conditional on updated Employment Regulation Orders being negotiated by the Joint Labour Committee, translates into a full year allocation of €45 million for programme year 2025/2026.

Under the Industrial Relations Act 1946, the Labour Court carries out a review of each Joint Labour Committee at least once every five years. The last such review was completed in 2023. The outcome of which was that the Labour Court recommended that the Early Years Services Joint Labour Committee be maintained in its current form.