Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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2313. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if a targeted rural childcare investment strategy is being considered to address specific workforce retention and sustainability issues faced by providers in counties such as Kerry. [41371/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Understanding the early learning and childcare needs of rural families is an important action under the Department’s First 5 Strategy 2019-2028 and the Department of Rural and Community Development’s (DRCD) Our Rural Future: Rural Development Policy, 2021-2025.

Informing this action, research published by my Department in 2024 found that parents in rural areas reported a greater reliance on parent/caregiver or familial care. The results, which will go toward informing policy development, highlighted issues faced by rural families in accessing early learning and childcare, particularly centre-based care, due to the limited availability of existing providers in their area. The findings also suggested that the issues experienced by rural families were compounded for those who also worked atypical hours.

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. Data from the 2024 Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey shows the national turnover rate for the sector was approximately 25.8% and the turnover rate for County Kerry is slightly lower at 25.0%. It is worth noting that 28% of the national turnover rate reflects staff moving from one provider to another.

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 wage rates or working conditions.

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

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 year 2025/2026.

An additional €45 million has been ring-fenced to support employers meet the costs of further increases to the minimum rates of pay. This allocation is conditional on updated Employment Regulation Orders.

Through the Joint Labour Committee process and supported through the Government’s Core Funding scheme, Employment Regulation Orders have been signed into law in September 2022 and June 2024 to progressively increase wage rates in the sector for staff at different grades. The associated increases in minimum rates of pay saw increases for over 70% and 52% of staff working with children in the sector.

In June 2025, new proposals for increases to minimum rates of pay for Early Years Educators and School-Age Childcare Practitioners were put forward by the Joint Labour Committee members. A public consultation on these draft proposals is currently under way as provided for under the Industrial Relations Act 1946. These proposals are a welcome first step in the process of developing improved Employment Regulation Orders for the sector. The Programme for Government commits to continue to implement Employment Regulation Orders to attract and retain early years educators.

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.