Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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1248. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the steps her Department is taking to ensure there is incentives for graduates to remain in the early years education sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30574/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In a very competitive labour market and with low levels of unemployment, recruitment and retention is a challenge for all employers, especially in low-paid sectors.

Pay is one of a number of issues impacting the early learning and care and school-age childcare workforce. 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.

However, the State is not an employer of staff and neither I, nor my Department, set pay or working conditions.

The Joint Labour Committee process is the formal mechanism by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates for the sector. The minimum pay rates are set out in Employment Regulation Orders and currently they provide for higher rates of pay for both graduate lead educators and graduate managers.

Outcomes from the Joint Labour Committee process are supported by Government through Core Funding, which has seen its allocation increase from €259 million in year 1 to €350 million for the coming programme year 2025/2026.

An additional €45 million has been ringfenced in the coming programme year to support employers meet the costs of further increases to the minimum rates of pay conditional on updated Employment Regulation Orders.

Staff in this sector play a key role in supporting children’s development and well-being, working in partnership with families.

First 5, the ten-year Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families, commits to a graduate-led workforce, with 50% of staff working with children holding an appropriate qualification at NFQ Level 7, or higher.

Recognising their central importance for the quality of provision, my Department continues to implement 'Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022-2028'.

Nurturing Skills aims to support the professional development of the workforce and sets out plans to raise the profile of careers in the sector, establish role profiles, career pathways, qualification requirements, along with leadership development opportunities.

A commitment in Nurturing Skills which, was subsequently delivered as part of Core Funding, meant the Higher Capitation payments which were limited to only the ECCE scheme were replaced by new financial supports (titled Graduate Premiums in Core Funding) for service providers to employ graduates as Lead Educators and managers to lead service provision with all ages of children in Early Learning and Care.

I continue to support the promotion of graduates within the sector through upskilling supports via the Nurturing Skills Learner Fund which supports those working in the sector who wish to upskill to degree level qualifications by making a significant contribution to their yearly tuition costs on early learning and care degree programmes