I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to the House.
Childcare Services: Motion [Private Members]
I move:
That Seanad Éireann:
notes:
- that there is a serious shortage of early years care and education places across this country, particularly for children under the age of one;
- the enormous pressure that this shortage places on families and, in particular, on a mother’s return to the workplace and decisions about hours worked;
- that parents face a wait of two years for early years and childcare places in some urban centres, while one in four children in Dublin’s northeast inner city cannot currently access an Early Childhood Care and Education Programme (ECCE) place;
- that in some cases the waiting lists for places mean parents must put names down very early in pregnancy in order to try to secure a place for their future children;
- that the cost of childcare is having a real impact on family formation decisions for some families;
- that the introduction of core funding is a welcome step to lowering fees for parents and increasing wages for workers; however, there remain serious issues for many small ECCE providers within our communities;
- that Ireland has the second highest OECD household spend on childcare costs and while the Budget increase in the universal subsidy by 90 cent to €1.40 will reduce fees it falls far short of the supports that are needed;
agrees that:
- the root cause of some of these early years, childcare and ECCE shortages is attributable to a combination of factors with the lack of available and affordable TUSLA-compliant space to establish a crèche, pre-school or after school place, a major reason;
- the lack of Government and State agency intervention and supports to ensure the availability of sufficient pre-school places has contributed to the current crisis;
- public intervention is necessary to ensure that all children who wish to take up a pre-school or crèche place are afforded a space;
- the establishment of the employment regulation order for early years workers is a major breakthrough but must be recognised as the starting point in the improvement of wages and conditions in the sector;
- while there are commitments to supporting the children in the most disadvantaged families in early years setting, this need is urgent and that the lack of timely support has an impact;
- Ireland’s current childcare model, the shortage of places, and the cost on parents is contributing to gender inequality in the labour force;
- our State’s early year policy must be built on ensuring equality of access for all children, affordability for families, and fairness for professionals;
calls on the Government to:
- put specific emergency capital funding in place to ensure the availability of TUSLA-compliant space for the establishment of crèches, pre-school or after-school services;
- roll out in September 2023 publicly funded, community childcare facilities to address the shortage of places and ensure that we have a universal public model of childcare and early years education where children are able to access affordable childcare and education in a location within their communities;
- commit to reducing the cost of childcare for parents to €200 per month per child by 2024;
- commit to the continued improvement in the pay and conditions of early years workers on an annual basis;
- review and resolve the funding issues for early year providers currently only offering ECCE places;
- roll out Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) funding to all early years and after school facilities;
- roll out, with urgency, the recommendation by the Report of the Expert Group on Partnership for the Public Good (November 2021) to develop a new funding model for Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC), for the identification and allocation of resources to ELC and SAC services with high levels of concentrated socio-disadvantage.
I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber this evening. I understand the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is scheduled to take the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022, which is going through the Dáil at the moment. I will start by saying that, since I was elected to the Seanad in 2020, I have been raising these issues in respect of the early years sector. It is important to acknowledge there has been substantial progress and major change, which must be welcomed. The principle of core funding and the pay agreements are major breakthroughs, and I know it is through the Minister's own commitment to the sector that we have seen these delivered. They are not without their difficulties. Many services that only provide early childhood care and education, ECCE, hours feel left behind. While €13 per hour does represent a pay increase for those working in the sector, it will not make paying the rent or having a decent standard of living any easier.
I am very glad we are joined in the House by early years workers and managers and parents from Dublin, Louth, Meath and Kilkenny. There is a very clear message that many of them want delivered. While there has been lots of good work done in the sector over the past two years, it is very important to communicate that very serious issues remain. These are issues that cannot be kicked down the road. They need to be resolved now.
The first is that there is a serious shortage of childcare and preschool places in the city of Dublin and in a number of parts of this country. I read the Government's amendment to our motion and not once does it acknowledge there are shortages. In fact, the Government claps itself on the back and says there have been increases in places. There may well be increases overall but let me tell the Minister of State about the reality, particularly here in Dublin and in the communities of the north inner city I happen to work with. Earlier this year, I told the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, about 55 preschool places being lost as a result of closures in Stoneybatter in Dublin's north-west inner city. Those places have not been replaced. In the north-east inner city, one in four children of preschool age cannot access a free preschool place. The reason we know this is because of the persistence and brilliant work of Young People at Risk, YPAR, a group of early years services and providers in the inner city that ensured research was commissioned into what was happening on the ground. The group hopes to publish this research in the weeks to come. This must be a wake-up call to us all. If we are serious about breaking the cycle of disadvantage, it is simply unacceptable that any child of preschool age could be deprived of a preschool place.
There is also a very significant shortage of places for the care of children under the age of one. Any parent of a small baby will say it is nearly impossible to get a place for a child under the age of one. I know this from my own experience, as will anybody else in the Chamber who is a parent. Parents are being told to put their children's names down while they are still pregnant. The few childcare services that still provide care for the under-ones say they are under enormous strain and are actively considering closing those services because it simply does not pay to keep them open.
We, as a State, cannot just sit back and hope supply will increase. We cannot just hope the national childcare scheme will ensure an increase in services over time. These needs must be met now. My colleagues in Labour Women have been speaking for many years about the need for a universal childcare scheme through which the State intervenes to ensure provision. Recommendation 25 of the Partnership for the Public Good report refers to the need to consider a public childcare system. We need to stop passing the buck regarding responsibility for the supply of childcare between the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the Department of Education and the local authorities. We need the State to step up and intervene.
The second key issue we wish to raise is the cost of childcare. It remains exorbitant for far too many families. The pace of the fees reduction is simply not enough. The Government told us that parents would see a 25% reduction in childcare fees this January, and yet, when we do the sums on the reduction, it will not be 25%. It will be far less. In fact, one family with two earners and a four-year-old child told me just two days ago that they are going to see a 9% reduction in the new year. Any reduction is welcome, but the key issue is that this 9% is a far cry from the 25% that parents were told to expect by way of a reduction in fees come January. There are real implications to not seeing a dramatic reduction in fees. We know that fees and the lack of places are having a serious impact, especially on women's ability to stay in full-time employment and their decision either to stay in the workplace or to reduce their hours. My colleague, Senator Hoey, will talk more about this.
A third issue is the need to recognise that early years care and education is a vital tool in breaking the cycle of disadvantage in our communities. It is very important to say that, in some ways, the term "childcare" is a misnomer. Early years services are not just about minding children. They are a crucial resource in supporting families. In that context, I pay tribute to the great work of the services I have interacted with: the Community After Schools Project, CASPr; the After Schools Education and Support Programme, ASESP; Ozanam House; the Larkin Centre; Lourdes Youth and Community Services, LYCS; Daisy Days; and Urlingford Community Childcare. There are many other services, particularly those dealing with those aged six months to three years, that are providing care and showing commitment to children, especially children from disadvantaged families. They provide care and education out of fierce loyalty and love for the communities they are located in.
We cannot talk about breaking the cycle and tackling disadvantage unless we look at where that begins, and that has to begin in the earliest years of the lives of children in those communities so that children who come from a chaotic background can get the support they need to do their homework and all of the other supports they need to prevent them from falling behind.
I am conscious the Dublin 7 aftercare service is present for this debate. It does great work in terms of ensuring children are not just minded but do not fall behind. Children with additional learning needs are waiting for therapy. The Minister of State knows only too well the waiting lists for therapy. Early years services and after-school supports are not just about minding children. Rather, they are an enormous family resource and are there to ensure children get some support for behavioural or other difficulties.
I appeal to the Minister of State, who is representing the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, in her capacity as Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities. A fantastic scheme has been rolled out across ten primary schools in the north-east inner city of Dublin over the past year. It involves a multidisciplinary team going into every primary school. The ethos and thinking behind the scheme is good because it catches children in primary school. As the Minister of State knows, even primary school can be too late. We need to try to catch children and identify problems at an earlier stage. Sometimes problems only come to light when children go to preschool. We need to roll out multidisciplinary team across services with concentrated levels of disadvantage. Waiting lists of between three or four years even to access a children's disability network team, CDNT, means we have to think differently about how we target communities with the greatest need.
In its amendment to the motion, the Government talks about setting up a targeting disadvantage fund. That all sounds great, but what is it? Where is it? We are in the middle of an appalling cost-of-living crisis. A measure like providing hot meals to all earlier services, in particular community services, would be relatively inexpensive. Yet, in budget 2023, there was no expansion of the pilot the currently exists. That needs to change.
That brings me to priority number four, namely, supporting children with a disability in the early years. We have a fantastic scheme, AIMS, for which funding is in place, but it is limited to the ECCE hours. Why do we think children with an additional need, be it behavioural, physical or intellectual, should not be supported for the hours beyond the ECCE scheme? I spoke to a family with twins the other day. One child has an additional need and the other does not. The child who does not is able to stay on for part-time or full-time care but the second child cannot because they are not able to access additional resources and support under AIMS for the hours beyond ECCE. That needs to change.
I am conscious I need to give time to my colleague Senator Hoey. We are not here just to talk about the problems; we are here to talk about how we can fix them. On the massive shortage, the State needs to intervene. Earlier this week I met the fantastic staff of the Lourdes Youth and Community Services, LYCS, on Hardwicke Street in Dublin. The service is in temporary accommodation owned by Dublin City Council. Over the door of the facility there is a lovely plaque to say the childcare facility was built with the benefit of EU Structural Funding and funding from the Irish Government. For good reason, Ireland is no longer in receipt of Structural Funding because we are in a truly remarkable situation in terms of our public finances. Yet, we are not building purpose-built childcare facilities as we did in the 1990s and prior to that.
I heard the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, refer to sustainability funding. We have seen appalling take-up of that funding. The fund is not fit for purpose. We need the State to build purpose-built preschool and crèche accommodation. For the past two years the after-school education and support programme in Dublin's North Wall has looked across the road at a perfectly good building owned by Dublin City Council. Every time we have raised the matter in the Dáil or Seanad, we have been told it is up to Dublin City Council to take responsibility. However, when we speak to Dublin City Council, we are told things cost money and other resources should be going in there. There is a lack of joined-up thinking.
We need to look at how the State can intervene, and we need to look at planning and the planning system. The reality is planning guidelines on the provision of childcare facilities within developments date back to 2001. That says a lot about our attitude towards planning for childcare. Many developments try to exempt themselves from providing such facilities because there is existing childcare provision in a locality or because the development comprises one or two-bedroom units. Just because people are living in a one-bedroom unit does not mean they will not have children. We need major reform of the planning guidelines and the State needs to build facilities.
I referred to Stoneybatter, where earlier this summer two facilities had to close because a primary school was forced to expand its additional needs provision, which was wonderful but meant that two preschool services had to close. They always knew they were on a licence and had very little time, but they had to close with very little notice. The reality is there was no joined-up thinking from the Department of Education and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when it came to the education of preschool kids. The Department of Education did not think about the loss of those 55 places.
I am conscious the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has done great work, but there are serious and urgent issues. This is not rocket science. The issues can be resolved. There is money. We just need to ensure we put it towards building purpose-built childcare facilities because the NCS cannot do all that work if there is no supply of services.
(Interruptions).
I second the motion. I pay tribute to Senator Sherlock for the terrific work she has put into the motion on behalf of our Labour Party colleagues. I acknowledge the advancements in core funding and the work done regarding pay.
I want to concentrate on rural areas where there are issues. I am sure the Minister of State is familiar with the issues in her area. In rural Kildare a number of service providers have said they are no longer in a position to provide services. I spoke to them in recent days. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has said the evidence available is that funding is sufficient to meet the needs of all childcare services and is quoted as saying an independent review could form the basis on which targeted measures, if required, could be taken.
Service providers in Kildare have asked me what will happen to them in the year to come. In some cases they welcome the independent review. One owner told me she is the bank manager and knows what is going out every week and the cost of providing childcare. She told me her service opened in 2007 and the staff have been with her since. She has to cover 130 hours per week between all staff. She told me core funding has increased by 4 cent per child per hour and is completely meaningless because, at less than €50 per week, it has been completely absorbed by inflation. The cost of cleaning supplies, craft supplies, heating and ESB have all gone through the roof. All of that is coming out of her bank account.
The Minister has insisted core funding is the only thing that will increase going forward and there will be no increase in the basic ECCE. He is, in effect, telling this owner she is stuck on the same money for years and things will never improve. That is her opinion and the opinion of many others. There are currently 44 families in her service and she has said she will have to reduce that number by 25%. In a small rural town in Kildare, 34 places will be lost, which will have a detrimental effect. The places will not be replaced. This is something that is being replicated in many other places.
The independent review the Minister of State spoke about cannot come quickly enough for small providers. In many cases, small providers are family-run services and provide sustainable employment. They pay their staff, they want and they are reaching out for it, but they are not getting it at the moment.
Senator Sherlock outlined the motion. I acknowledge all of those in childcare. When I knock on doors in Kildare South, something the Minister of State probably does in Galway, people tell me childcare is a major issue. It is a second mortgage. That is why we are bringing this motion forward.
(Interruptions).
Out of respect for the debate, I ask visitors not to clap again. I welcome the leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Bacik, and all of her guests to the Gallery.
I move amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after “Seanad Éireann:” and substitute the following:
“- welcomes the extensive commitments by the Government to address long-standing challenges in the early learning and childcare sector;
- welcomes the increase to over €1bn per annum in State funding for the sector, reaching the investment target set in 2018, five years ahead of schedule;
- welcomes significant prioritisation by the Government of measures designed to:
- substantially reduce out-of-pocket costs of early learning and childcare for families;
- increase the pay and improve the conditions of early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners;
- place early learning and childcare providers on a solid, sustainable footing;
- recognise and bolster the vital public good contributed by the sector;
- acknowledges and welcomes the major achievements of the new funding model – Together for Better – which brings together three major programmes, the National Childcare Scheme (NCS), the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, including the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), and the new Core Funding Scheme, in particular:
- the roll-out and on-going enhancements to the NCS, which is providing subsidies – both targeted and universal - to record numbers of children this year, with additional funding of €121 million secured in Budget 2023, set to further substantially reduce out of pocket costs of early learning and childcare to families from 2 January 2023;
- the roll-out of the ECCE programme– which enjoys uptake rates in excess of 95 per cent and has removed barriers to accessing pre-school education, with data from Growing Up in Ireland showing that more than 60 per cent of low
income families would not have been able to send their child to pre-school without this programme – as well as work underway to enhance this programme, with an evaluation now underway as a precursor to putting the ECCE programme on a statutory footing;
- the roll-out of the award winning AIM, that is supporting more than 5,000 children with a disability each year to access the ECCE programme, and the commitment already made to enhance and expand AIM, following the completion of the AIM evaluation, that is due to be published in early 2023;
- the new Core Funding Scheme – with an allocation of €259 million in its first year and participation rates of 94 per cent services – that has supported:
- the historic Employment Regulation Orders for the Early Years Services Sector, which came into effect in September this year providing new minimum hourly rates of pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners, increasing the wages of an estimated 73 per cent of those working in the sector;
- the introduction of a new fee management system which means initially no increase in fees from September 2021 for the September 2022 to August 2023 programme year, which, in tandem with developments to the NCS, will deliver enormous benefits to families;
- the introduction of a requirement of services to offer the NCS to all eligible families, which has given rise to a 10 per cent increase in the number of services offering the NCS, thus substantially widening access to this State support;
- a significant growth in capacity allowing greater access for children and their families, as demonstrated by a 16% increase in place hours since 2019/2020, an increase in place hours where there is lower supply and higher demand, including baby place hours (increased by 8%), toddler place hours (increased by 22%), and school-age place hours and an increased opening hours both in term and out of term-time;
- the additional funding of €28 million secured in Budget 2023 for year 2 of Core Funding, €4 million of which will be used to remove the experience requirement on both graduate premiums under Core Funding, with the allocation of the remaining €24 million to be informed by the evidence, including data from Year 1 of operation and an independent review of the finances of small, sessional services that will be completed in Quarter 1 2023;
- acknowledges and welcomes the wider reform agenda underway in the area of early learning and childcare, through implementation of a range of other policies and programmes, including:
- the €70 million Building Blocks Capital Programme, under the National Development Plan, that is designed to meet current and long-term early learning and childcare infrastructure needs;
- the work underway to implement the National Action Plan for Childminding (2021-2028), with a commitment to opening the NCS to childminders at the earliest possible opportunity;
- the work underway to implement other recommendations in Partnership for the Public Good, including a new Tackling Disadvantage fund, whereby services will be provided with a proportionate mix of universal and targeted supports to support children and families accessing their services who are experiencing disadvantage;
- the work underway to implement Nurturing Skills, the Workforce Plan for the Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare Sector (2021-2028), with commitments to develop career pathways, promote careers in the sector and support staff recruitment, complementing recent achievements and future plans to improve pay and conditions of employment in the sector;
notes:
- the recent OECD Country Policy Review of Early Childhood Education and Care in Ireland concluded that ‘Ireland is currently pursuing a strong policy agenda for Early Childhood Education and Care, with the adoption of a long-term whole-of-government strategy for babies, young children and their families covering the period 2019 to 2028’ and acknowledged that ‘the country has committed itself to improving access, affordability and quality of ECEC provision’, as well as the recent OECD data that shows Ireland’s performance in supporting families, and particularly lone parent families, with the cost of early learning and childcare is markedly improving – even before the impact of enhancements of NCS under Budgets 2022 and 2023 or the fee freeze is taken into account; specifically, OECD data that shows Ireland having the highest decrease in early learning and childcare costs to families across the EU over the period 2019-2021 and that shows net childcare costs as a share of the household's net income for lone parents on low income in 2021 falling below the EU average for the first time;
- while noting that further developments and investment are required, whilst recognising that there are many positive and progressive elements to the current early learning and childcare sector and acknowledges the pathway for improving access, affordability, quality and sustainability are set out in national policies, which Government has committed to implementing.”
The Minister of State is welcome to the House. I highlight the scheduling of this debate. I am glad my children have their father to look after them and put them to bed tonight. We talk about trying to encourage diversity and encouraging young people and women into politics and into these Houses, then we put a debate on between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. I will not see my children until tomorrow night, or maybe until Friday. We have to be real about this. There is irony in having a debate on childcare at such a time. It is not on the proposers because they do not do the scheduling, but if we are serious in these Houses about diversity and women and politics, then we must start to change how we do our business, because this is nonsense. If I were a lone parent, I might have my four children sitting in their pyjamas in the Public Gallery because I would have no one else to mind them.
However, I am always positive about childcare and the importance of it because, with four children, I am well aware how important it is. It is critical for their learning and their socialisation in their community and friend groups. My own wee fellows have such friendships and love of their teachers and the people who work in the area. That shows me the importance of the work the people, who are usually women, do and how they treat my children and how they taught them. I have such a debt to the women who looked after my children, especially in preschool.
Senator Sherlock rightly said there was a huge amount of funding. We have come from such a low base. We have had 100 years of inaction. We have had 100 years of telling women to mind their children. Due to economic need, or just blatant ambition by women who wanted to go out to work, the private sector pulled in. We are dealing with the consequences in our early years and our elder years because the State did not stand up and because it said women would do it. Women did it but we farmed the work out to the private sector. We are dealing with the bad consequences of that now. I hope we are beginning to deal with it better.
We have made available the biggest budget ever in the history of the State. We have reached the €1 billion milestone five years ahead of schedule. I am not saying that is enough. I agree with Senator Sherlock we should be working towards universal childcare. We must be working towards equality and equal access for every single child. My children did not get equal access. I was not able to work because I was not able to afford full-time care. My children used the ECCE scheme. They would not have got into that if it had not been free. I and my partner had to cut our cloth. He worked and I stayed at home. My ambitions were put on the table for a couple of years, until I got into politics. The irony of that is I now see my children hardly at all. It is critical we move ahead with this.
I was taking notes on points Senator Sherlock was making and it is hard to disagree. We need supply. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, quite often about increasing the capital programme. Locally in County Louth, people are coming to me and telling me they have two rooms full and could fill two more if only they could get access to the capital programme. They could have all the children in perfect, proper buildings. We must incentivise this and build the services. The services should be State-owned. We should not be putting money into new private services. I am not sure whether it is Government policy but we should not be putting money into building private services. We should put money into building public services and make it part of the education system. We should also start working cross-departmentally. The Minister of State has looked at this from her portfolio in disability services. Early years is often the first place where children's special needs are identified by the workers there. They know the children as they see them every single day. They see things we might miss because they are trained. They know what to look out for and what the markers are. They are then able to signpost that to therapies. I do not like the word but it is about a holistic circle of looking after our children and their every single need. We could talk about the Department of Education. We have schools that are idle from 3 p.m. onwards, in most cases. They are empty and we have parents struggling to find after-school care. We must start incentivising.
I thought I had much longer to speak. I have so much to say about this but I agree we must continue to be strong in pushing for further investment. I am conscious the Minister of State is behind this, as the Government is. It has put its money where its mouth is and advanced the biggest budget ever. It will continue to do so and, with practical support, the situation will get better.
I welcome the Labour Party motion. Naturally, I do not agree with everything the proposers said. That is the nature of our different positions. However, the motion gives us an opportunity to highlight important areas that need change and intervention.
We have been on a trajectory for a number of years in the childcare and early years sector. It was the Cinderella sector for a very long time and there was a perception of childminding rather than the real childcare professionals there who have a passion for children. They identify issues very early with children and are an incredible support to parents in steering them through and assisting them in new parenthood, toilet training and so many other areas in which they will advise and, because of their education, be a great resource for parents. The preschool regulations of 2016 brought us to a place where there was a standard of education across the entire childcare sector. While at the time I advocated for a grandfathering aspect because we lost some people who would not return to education but had years of experience, by having a standard of education and input into the training and education of our childcare professionals, we afford an opportunity for universal experience for every child regardless of where he or she goes to a childcare service. That was very important.
We then saw the introduction of the ECCE scheme. Once my daughter applied for that, we went from more than €1,200 a month in childcare costs down to €900-odd. That made a huge financial difference to us at the time. From that, which came from my Fine Gael colleagues in the previous Government, we have come forward and seen the introduction of the national childcare scheme and its previous manifestations of childcare subvention that have ensured hard-pressed parents have had options for quite some time now. We are increasing that trajectory. We are at a place of record sums being put into childcare.
However, there is no doubt there is an ongoing issue for childcare providers, and these things must be addressed. The baby places have always been a struggle. There are a multiplicity of factors feeding into that. The first is the ratio of 3:1. That single worker must have breaks under the Organisation of Working Time Act and they must take holidays. Therefore, more than one worker is needed and there must be floating workers.
One in the sleeping room.
Exactly, there must be one to watch the sleeping room. Thus the economics of the baby room are not good in themselves, but at the same time, in tandem with that, we have seen increased parental leave and other supports. We have paternity leave and other elements that have come in that are positive and important.
I would rather that we advocated for women or parents to have longer time and that first year with their child, rather than necessarily greater funding for baby places. However, I appreciate that there is a need.
There is an issue in the standardisation of the inspection criteria. There are matters that are trivial that get recorded on inspection reports as non-compliance matters when actually they are something small that is dealt with on the day of the inspection before the inspector has even left the premises. That is very unfair for that to go into a public document as non-compliance. There are other things that can be the whim of an inspector. I have experience working in support and I have been a mentor with the Dublin City Childcare Committee for a long time. I have gone in and been a troubleshooter with services to try to support them. One of the things I found along the way in one instance, for example, was a door arrangement that was perfect for ten years that suddenly got on the nerves of the same inspector that had walked past it on previous occasions in previous years. Suddenly it became an issue. We should not have that because that leaves a sense of uncertainty as to whether one is fully in compliance or not. Most services are very good in organising that.
The administrative burden on services is absolutely enormous. We either need to refine it, which I think we are on a trajectory to do, or we need to supply more funding for administrative positions and acknowledge there are many other things, such as HR matters, that also need to be dealt with. Rather than always funding the childcare professionals, and that is rightly so, we also need to fund other positions within the services.
I completely agree with the Senator. This was one of my lines for today. Here is the breaking news. If you live in a one-bedroom apartment, you could well actually have sex and could well have a baby. I know it is major news. However, for some reason, in our criteria for exemption, one-bedroom apartments do not count when we are counting the numbers for where 75 units are being built. One-bedroom apartments are not counted as housing children and, in some instances, two-bedroom apartments are not counted. This is for those purposes of when there is a necessity to put in a childcare service. I have been long advocating with the Minister of State, and I know the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, has as well, to remove that exemption because it is absolutely nonsense. Here we have a way for fast and easy provision of infrastructure that could be delivered if there is an obligation on the developers to do that.
I thank the Senator for the motion. It is important that we raise the issues, but we need to applaud - and I appreciate the Senator did – the fact a huge amount is being done. To use a phrase from the Minister of State’s party, a lot more needs to be done, but we are going the right direction and we need to celebrate that.
I commend the Labour Party grouping on tabling a motion into which they clearly put much thought and research. They were very professional and dedicated in their approach to this burning issue.
The differences in the reality of politics between the Government parties and the Opposition are probably not as big as we think they are but there are differences. In her opening remarks, Senator Sherlock was generous to acknowledge that there have been some improvements. Perhaps during the lifetime of the full Government, there will be more boxes ticked, more progress made and a closing of the gap between our differences, which I believe are not insurmountable. No one can question the bona fides of the Labour Party in tabling this motion and no one can question the fact that it is a big issue. I think it was Senator Wall who said that the fees involved are like a second mortgage.
It is appropriate that the Acting Chair, Senator Flynn, who chaired the first part of this debate, has been a great advocate for so many issues. Recently, we congratulated her in the Chamber for becoming a mam. I thought that was appropriate. What was inappropriate, and this is where I agree with Senator McGreehan, is the scheduling of this debate. It is quite ironic. It affects dads, of course, as well as mams. I will not get home in time tonight to see my two young children before they go to sleep. In case there is any confusion, that is not a criticism of the Labour Party. In politics you get blamed for many things, but you cannot be blamed for the rostering and scheduling of matters.
It is great to see a gathering in the Public Gallery. It is clear this is an issue of deep concern when people have given up their evening to be here. I believe that they are a microcosm representative of Ireland.
To come down to some of the details of this, as a Senator in a party that is a member of Government, I would have to say the following. In respect of addressing the challenges of the sector, there have been extensive commitments by the Minister to address the long-standing challenges in the early learning and childcare sector, including the following: an increase to more than €1 billion per annum in State funding for the sector, reaching the investment target set in 2018 - five full years ahead of schedule; a reduction in out-of-pocket costs of early learning and childcare for families; and an increase to pay and improved conditions for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners. In respect of Government achievements, there is still much more to do and we are not getting carried away. I would be the first to put my hands up that there is more to do. However, it is important in a motion such as this to recognise the additional funding of €121 million secured in budget 2023 set to substantially reduce out-of-pocket costs of early learning and childcare for families from 2 January.
The roll-out of the early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme, which enjoys uptake rates in excess of 95%, has removed barriers to accessing preschool education. Data from Growing Up in Ireland show that more than 60% of low-income families would not have been able to send their child to preschool without this programme. In addition, work is under way to enhance this programme, with the evaluation now under way as a precursor to putting the ECCE programme on a statutory footing. The roll-out of the award-winning access and inclusion model, AIM, is supporting more than 5,000 with a disability each year to access the ECCE programme. A commitment was already made to enhance and expand AIM following the completion of this evaluation that is due to be published in early 2023.
Government initiatives in this sector include the €70 million building blocks capital programme under the national development plan that is designed to meet current and long-term early learning and childcare infrastructure needs; the National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028 with a commitment to opening the national childcare scheme, NCS, to childminders at the earliest possible opportunity; the tackling disadvantage fund, whereby services will be provided by the proportionate mix of universal and targeted supports to support children and families accessing its services who are experiencing disadvantage; and the workplace plan for early learning and care and school-age childcare sector 2021 to 2028, with commitments to develop career pathways, promote careers in the sector and support staff recruitment, complementing achievements and future plans to improve pay and conditions of employment in this sector. More must be done in respect of the work conditions of the people in the front line in this sector who do such a good job. So many of us in the Chamber are so grateful for the work that they do on a daily basis.
There are new initiatives being introduced by the Minister and the Department. I know the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, has prioritised this as his big issue. He works very closely with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. The introduction of the core funding scheme has an allocation of €259 million in its first year and participation rates of 94% services. It provides new minimum rates of pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners, increases the wages of an estimated 73% of those working the sector. More must be done, but that is a step in the right direction I would respectfully submit.
I note the introduction of the requirement of service to offer the NCS to all eligible families, which has given rise to a 10% increase in the number of services offered in the NCS, thus substantially widening access to State support. Finally, with indulgence, there has been significant growth in capacity, allowing greater access for children and their families, as demonstrated by a 16% increase in place hours since 2019 to 2020, an increase in place hours where there is a lower supply and higher demand, including baby place hours increased by 8%, toddler place hours increased by 22% and school-age place hours, and an increase in opening hours both in term and out of term.
I thank the Minister of State for her indulgence. This debate is very important and we should have more debates on this issue. I commend the Labour Party. I want to put on the record the progress the Government has made under the auspices of the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman.
I thank the Labour Party Senators for tabling the motion, which Sinn Féin will support. We see childcare as a public service for children and parents. When it works a State childcare system can be a huge employer and help with the mental health development and health development of our smallest children and young people. It can facilitate parents, especially women, to access the workforce and contribute to a vibrant healthier society and vibrant economy. This is a far cry from the system we have at present which benefits neither childcare professionals nor parents. The depth of the problem we have allowed to develop means the issues facing the sector are, in our view, threefold. These are the fees paid by parents, the pay and conditions of childcare workers and sustainability. Any plan that hopes to address the childcare situation and crisis in the country must consider these issues.
With regard to fees it will come as no great shock to hear that childcare costs are completely out of control. Full-time childcare fees are, on average, €810 per month per child and are even higher in parts of Dublin. Even with spiralling housing costs, the figure is the equivalent of a month's mortgage or rent for many. These unsustainably high childcare costs are putting the parents of young children under huge pressure, particularly at a time when we are in the grip of an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis. Parents need access to affordable high-quality childcare, as is the norm in other European countries. We should expect no less here. The extent to which we are outliers in Europe is only emphasised by the OECD's continued challenging of the State on its delivery of public investment in early years education and childcare.
With regard to fee controls it is clear the failure of the Houses of the Oireachtas and the Government to take real action to address affordability and introduce fee controls as part of the national childcare scheme was a fundamental flaw. Without fee controls there is no guarantee that any increased investment in the sector would, in fact, translate into reduced fees for parents. Increased subsidies can simply be swallowed up by services that are under pressure and fees will continue to rise. With regard to investment, for our part, Sinn Féin has long proposed a system that would offer childcare providers the option of entering a scheme where the State would provide additional funding to cover some of the additional costs covered by parents. This would include costs such as wages and overheads. In return, providers would reduce their fees for parents by two thirds.
With regard to workers' conditions, I am acutely aware of the wider circumstances that mean highly-skilled professionals childcare providers are struggling financially to remain in jobs they truly love. Service providers are under enormous financial pressure to remain viable. Any proposal to address childcare services must not only cut fees for parents but ensure providers receive crucial funding. We debated the Finance Bill today. In our alternative budget we proposed an increase of annual investment by €270 million. Furthermore, we need to build a policy mechanism to review the fee structures and the potential impact of inflation on an annual basis.
There should be a decent payscale and fairer pay for a highly educated work force, many of whom are on very low wages and poor conditions. We know that workers in the sector fought long and hard to secure minimum rates of pay and a career structure with job titles and a pathway and framework for professional pay and conditions. This progress must continue. The Government must provide the financial and legislative framework to support this. For too long we have facilitated a market-driven model at the expense of ordinary workers. This cannot continue and the State must ensure that childcare is accessible, affordable and of high quality. Sinn Féin supports the motion as a very important step in the process. I welcome those in the Gallery.
I welcome the Minister of State to the House. As other Senators rightly said, it is after 8 p.m. and we are speaking about childcare. I thank my colleagues in the Labour Party for tabling this very important motion before the House. I am a mother of two young children. Lacey has just gone 15 months and Billie is three. I put Billie's name down for childcare when I was working in the National Traveller Women's Forum before I came to the Seanad. The reality is that if I had Billie in childcare and was also trying to get Lacey into childcare, I would not be able to afford to work in Dublin and pay childcare as well as the rest of my bills.
I am extremely privileged to have the opportunity to be able to do the work I love doing empowering women. We often have conversations about women going for election and participating in public life and women not getting equality of opportunity. Unfortunately many women cannot put themselves forward for these opportunities. It is not because our children are a problem. They are far from a problem. It is that even though we have made some progress in childcare the problem is our childcare system, the cost of childcare and the number of spaces available for young children.
Billie is now in preschool. She gets fed and well looked after. It is a great three-hour service every day. She is in five days a week. It is a little rural community crèche in Ardara. I have invited the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to visit and I hope he will take me up on the offer some day. We speak about women participating in society. How can women on the margins of society, such as Traveller women, migrant women and poor women, fully participate in society with so many challenges? Having a child is not the problem, it is the system.
The motion calls for specific emergency capital funding to ensure the availability of spaces in crèche, preschools and afterschools. I am a working mother and I know how hard it is to be a full-time mother and full-time politician. It is about education. Billie has advanced so much. She is a little girl who this time last year was shy of people. She is out of her shell now. We brought her to the turning on of the Christmas lights in Ardara last week. She engaged and she was singing. She wants to go to Mass every Sunday to participate in the singing. It is the workers in the crèche who care for my little girl who have brought her out of her shell. They meet her needs and they feed and look after the children.
As other colleagues said, in some parts of the EU, such as Finland, early education for children is considered an essential service. Why can we not do this? This is a crucial question that I would like to be answered by the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman. Why can we not make early child education a public service? Why can we not make it a part of our education system? I will leave the Minister of State with this question. Since my time at the National Traveller Women's Forum, I am sick to the teeth of trying to bring the voices of minority women to the table. We want to have children and be able to work and participate in society. How can we do this when we do not have adequate and appropriate childcare?
Childcare also impacts on men. It impacts on families. We all know this. This evening I am specifically focusing on the participation of women. I am speaking about women who want to work. I often look back and wonder how my mother did it 33 years ago with nine of us. She did not have a choice but to deal with the nine of us. We have come a long way with services but we need to go further. We need to invest in our young people.
We need to invest in people to be able to have gender equality in order that all people can participate in society and fulfil their dreams and ambitions for life. All of us in the Civil Engagement Group support Labour's motion.
I welcome this motion on childcare from Senators Sherlock and Wall. I welcome the Minister of State who is here on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman. What has been raised here is important. The people in the Gallery work and are managers in the early years sector. I am based in a more rural area. Senator Wall referred to this and the challenges that we can face. Senator Sherlock mentioned city centre areas, such as the north part of the city of Dublin. There is a huge population and high demand for these services.
I have looked at the numbers over the past year for the national childcare scheme and the number of services that have signed up for core funding. I know of services that are still outside it but, from what I understand, more than 90% of services have signed up to core funding but there is still a significant challenge with the costs for independent childcare services. We are fully aware that they have been incredible over the past year. From a Government perspective, the temporary business energy support scheme is available. It has to be available for childcare providers to apply for because of the extreme costs they face. With core funding comes responsibility. As a Government and society, this is about working with everyone. Our children come first. We need to provide a level of care that is available to parents from all backgrounds, particularly single parents. Single mums and dads are the most vulnerable when it comes to being able to accommodate these costs and to poverty. The number one category in terms of poverty is single parents. We have to support their children, first and foremost.
The area I am based in ranks highly on the Pobal deprivation index. This has to be used. We have talked about families from different backgrounds. The census we had last year, which we will get reports about next year, will indicate areas of concern across the country that we will need to focus our resources and budget on. I highlight that as something for the Minister to look at.
Senator Sherlock mentioned the pilot and access to meals and food, similar to what we see with the schools in the delivering equality of opportunity in schools, DEIS, programme. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, was speaking here just before this session about the importance of hot school meals for children and the expansion of the scheme to DEIS. I know some DEIS schools provide free school meals. Up to 500 schools currently provide free hot school meals. I would like to see an update on this pilot that has been rolled out. Over €150,000 has been allocated to that this year. I would like to see how that would work with information from the census and the Pobal deprivation index.
In rural areas, there is a challenge with maintaining fees to ensure that parents are able to access these services. In my area, we have Ballinasloe College of Further Education. As spokesperson on education, I am interested in the level and breadth of courses that it is able to offer. In my town, we offer three different types of course, covering childcare, pre-nursing, healthcare, horticulture and a number of other courses that the institution is expanding into. I attended a graduate ceremony last week in Ballinasloe College of Further Education, which is run by the education and training boards, ETBs. Young men and women are doing courses relating to childcare and the number is increasing.
People in some of these areas are able to do courses leading to level 4 and 5 qualifications in their ETB facilities and people can do part-time courses in the mornings or evenings. Level 6 courses may only be offered online, however. While that may work as well in some situations, I would love to see how we could offer those courses, up to level 6, within local towns across the country. Having a graduate within the childcare services is part of something that we want to see rolled out. Many have done level 5 courses, have come into the programme, and are able to work. It gave me such heart to meet young people doing those courses, who are now graduates working in childcare services in the town of Ballinasloe. I would not underestimate the number of jobs that are available. We want to see independent childcare services providers in our towns. I acknowledge there is a significant need in our cities but we are fortunate to have those courses. The city might have different pressures. If the Minister of State could commit to more courses being available in towns across the country, it would increase the bandwidth. Senator Sherlock raised points about the shortage of childcare places. I would be interested in seeing how ETB facilities in city centre areas could deliver that.
I agree with Senator Sherlock about points of disadvantage. I would like to see that being aligned with the Pobal deprivation index that comes out of the census, with particular regard to children with disabilities. The Minister of State will be familiar with how we can support children's disability network teams, which are a new initiative, to be more effective. I thank the Senators for bringing this to us. I have seen an improvement over the past year. The level of funding from the Government has been acknowledged. This has been a key thing that Fine Gael has driven and over the last year to two years, it has become one of our key priorities as a party in government.
I welcome the Minister of State. I would say to Senator Martin that it will probably be 11 p.m. or 11.30 p.m. when I get home tonight, but I will see the kids in the morning, which is why I continue to drive up and down every day. When one has a young family, it can be difficult to be away. My wife is a primary school teacher who works too, so we know the benefit of childcare from the last years. The reality is that childcare has been neglected. People in that sector have been underpaid. That has started to be addressed for next year and that will continue. It is a priority of Government to make sure that we invest in childcare and increase the wages of those who are working in it. Next week, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, will introduce legislation relating to paternity benefit for those of us in elected life. I think that is long past time.
I was involved in setting up an afterschool service in my community. We identified a need in our area which was not there previously. Parents came to me with issues. We applied to Pobal for funding to set it up in our community centre, which is located next door to our school. This proved successful. It has been running for the last eight years. We have over 70 families. We have increased the numbers in our schools because we are providing the service and others are not. We start at 8 a.m. and go to 9.30 a.m., or when school starts, then from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. It has been extremely beneficial to working parents. We need that because our economy is at full employment and significant parts of our economy are looking for people. It is important to have that infrastructure in place but it is not in place in other areas. Many publicly-owned buildings sit with empty classrooms in various locations around the country. I feel they should be used as afterschool facilities for parents. We do not need to build anything new. They are already there to be utilised for the benefit of parents, in particular. That needs to be taken on board by the Departments of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and Education.
I believe that supports are needed for the voluntary committees that run many of these community childcare facilities. As I say, I know first-hand the headaches and sometimes the resistance to it. I know how much working time is put in by a voluntary committee to make sure that it works and that wages are paid. It basically involves running a private company which has to be kept afloat to make sure that staff are available to look after children. I would like to see some extra supports for the voluntary committee, which does a lot of hard work behind the scenes.
I have spoken to the Minister of State about ECCE staff. As she will be aware, the Joint Committee on Autism launched a report only last week with regard to the lack of summer provision in schools throughout the country, especially in special schools. We have a scheme for which more than 80,000 children with needs throughout the country are eligible. They need stability during the summer months and will regress if they do not get the minimum of four weeks intervention during that period. As the Minister of State is aware, a significant number of schools do not do offer summer provision. They point to a lack of staff and, yet, we have qualified ECCE staff with various levels of education who are more than capable of working within a school-based programme to make sure that summer provision could be offered. We have a situation where a number of ECCE staff are signing on to the register for the summer months. That is not acceptable. It does not make sense and needs to change.
One our recommendations in the report was to employ staff working in the ECCE system in our schools for the summer months to provide a summer programme for the most vulnerable kids. The programme is badly needed in our special schools in particular where 86% of the children, more than 8,000, did not get a place on the summer school programme. That is a fact. Of the total number of children, 3.8% got the four weeks. Children with severe and high needs are not getting the supports they need. They regress over the summer. When they come back in September, their teachers have to work for two or three months to get them back to where they were before the summer break. I ask that this be taken into account. I met representatives from a national organisation at a recent event in Leinster House. ECCE workers are more than qualified to work in that system. I ask that it be opened up and that we allow the full complement of those working in the ECCE system to work in school-based programmes next summer.
I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House, and I welcome the people in the Gallery. Some are party colleagues, but many of them work in the sector as activists or childcare providers. A number are parents.
There is no question about the work the Government is doing to try to deal with the childcare crisis and the issue of childcare costs. My Labour Party colleague, Senator Sherlock, outlined the rationale behind the motion and very eloquently explained all of the factors creating this bubble of trouble within the sector. My colleague, Senator Wall, talked about the direct impact on communities. He referred to the loss of 34 places in a small town. That is a considerable number of places to lose.
If the Acting Chairperson would be so good as to indulge me, I might take us on a slightly different tack and offer a feminist analysis as to the impact this childcare crisis is having on women. In Ireland, the average cost of childcare makes up 35% of household income compared with the EU average of 10% to 13%. We know the obstacles this is putting in the way of people who want to start families. I have dozens of friends my age who are putting off starting families because they cannot comprehend how they will afford childcare. Many of my friends are women and they do not want to have to give up their careers in order to have families. They should be facilitated in this regard. I need not even go into the impact putting off having children is having on them. I have friends who want to have to children in their early 30s but who are putting off doing so until their late 30s and early 40s. Doing that comes with a whole other set of difficulties.
The state is magnifying the problem. That is not good enough. It breaks my heart to hear friends say that they want children and to start a family but that they cannot do so. They do not see how they can do it despite all the work they have put into their careers. They have looked at the costs involved and at the childcare places available in their localities. Some have discovered that if one local childcare provider closes, they will be goosed. They do not always have parents to help them look after their children. It is unfair of us to expect the latter. I am a big fan of multigenerational care, of looking after people, of the concept of community and of building our own tribes. However, the State cannot expect grandparents to take on that caring role. My friends are acutely aware of the pressure it is putting on their families.
Other issues that arise in the context of the fact that we have the highest childcare costs, as a percentage of income, in the EU. We are still battling inequality and fighting for gender parity. We do that every day. We have statements all the time on this matter, and many of us are doing it in our daily lives. Indirectly, our very own Irish policies are creating a bigger gap between men and women. A research report published by the ESRI and Pobal found that due to high childcare costs, women are working less hours. The press release relating to the report in question report came with the heading, "High childcare costs linked to lower employment among mothers". That is pretty chilling. The report found that women's careers are particularly affected by high childcare costs and showed men's careers do not suffer in this regard.
We need to create a place where the gap between men and women is not fuelled by something we, the policymakers, have the power to change or influence. I do not doubt the Minister of State's bona fides or the Government's attempt to tackle this problem, but the current system is perpetuating discrimination and a divide between men and women. Some 45% of women with children between the ages of three and five change their employment hours in order to accommodate caring for children. The research report found greater Government support will increase the number of maternal women in employment.
Low-income families are affected by childcare costs to a considerable degree. Thus, Government supports are especially important for these families. The Minister of State has spoken about direct funding in that area. Dr. Ela Hogan, Pobal's monitoring, analysis and outcomes unit lead, has stated:
The high costs of childcare has been widely recognised as a significant barrier to female labour market participation in Ireland. This report not only provides a supporting evidence on this, but also points out that this barrier is even more profound for lone parents and low income families.
If we were to offer a contemporary feminist analysis of this, not only do we need to address the gender gap our childcare policies are creating, we also need to address poverty. To do that, we have to look at how the policies address childcare costs. These are especially crucial because labour market exclusion due to childcare costs is linked to poverty risks and household unemployment. I do not know whether the Minister of State has seen the report but it is extremely impactful.
I was on a study tour to Iceland recently. I was there to look at how it has tackled the gender pay gap. Every single person from across the political divide to whom we spoke, from trade unionists, feminists and women to parents, referred to affordable state-funded childcare that is open and accessible to everyone being the key lever that has not only closed the gender pay gap but that has also helped to build a more equal society. I was struck by how people spoke about childcare. They did not speak about it as a methodology in order for parents to be able to go to work. Rather, they spoke about childcare as a right of the child to be cared for in a safe environment. The childcare system in Iceland is tied to the education system. There is curriculum and sequence to it. We have a different format here which I think would take a considerable cultural shift. Iceland has a gap it is working on bridging between year 1 and year 2 when children are able to enter the system. Hearing people there talk about their childcare system was a very different experience.
I have a number of friends who studied early years education and who are qualified professionals. They have taken the time in their lives to invest in their education because they care about early years, childcare and working with children. However, they cannot afford to work in childcare. One of my friends had a child and could not afford, on her salary, to put her child into the childcare facility in which she is working, even with all the discounts, etc., available to her. That is madness. I do not wish to go on about this matter.
I know the Government is listening, but it is important to put on the record how our current policies, which we have the option and power to change, are affecting gender equality and driving women out of the workforce.
We are a progressive society and we should be looking at equality and making this a better place for women, men and everyone else to live in. Our current policies are not doing that. This is impacting on women, families and people in poverty. Ultimately, it is impacting on children. If we cannot get things right for our children, I do not know who we can get things right for.
I welcome any opportunity to debate childcare. The motion and the response to it are interesting to read through. They show that there has been progress. We have to acknowledge the national childcare scheme. The numbers show we are moving from being the highest in Europe. We are beginning to address that and we are on a journey. We are also lifting more children out of poverty through it. The core funding is a very important pillar in that as it gives stability to parents around fees and freezing the fees. Progress has been made with the employment regulation order. Of course, this is a journey and I do not think any of us would say we are where we want to be. There is an impatience about where we are with childcare and the cost of childcare. It is about accessible and affordable childcare.
The budget is great and getting up to 25% off fees is great too. In Dublin West, the issues that come up are as much about accessibility and not being able to secure baby rooms in the community. It is putting people and women off coming back to work, or they have to drive ridiculous journeys to access a crèche. These things add up over time. I do not think any woman who sets out to do well in her career envisages these barriers to employment. Sometimes it just becomes too much between the cost, the extra travelling and the juggle. We need a vision for what the alternative looks like or what we are moving towards. I would like to see more capital investment opportunities for crèches. I believe in the community crèche model. It is a successful model. It has its issues but with political will, it can be the template. It is a format we can develop so we can open not-for-profit crèche in our communities that are highly subsidised. That will bring us on a journey towards what can be a public system.
I was in Iceland on that trip with Senator Hoey. I believe it is the right of a child to have an education that is appropriate to their age from a certain age. Having that support from a certain age as a given has transformed Iceland's society and economy. It also levels the playing field between men and women with regard to opportunities and the gender pay gap. It starts with shared parental leave as one pillar but the expectation is that the system will support families and children. It is the right of the child to spend as much time with, and be raised as much by, their father or the second parent as the first and it is the right of any parent to have access to affordable and accessible childcare. It is commonplace enough around Europe. I am thinking of France, Iceland and Finland, where there are day parents to close the gap until the child starts in a community crèche at 18 months or two years. In some countries, such as Australia for instance, it might even be older.
We seem to have moved entirely into a system where crèches are the only environment where there are subsidies. We are not looking closely enough at childminding and day parents, as they are called, which works in other countries. We are registering childminders, and they get up to €15,000 tax-free in Ireland, but we should be giving more to make those environments what we want them to be and formalising that system of day parents. That is a model that can help us through the baby rooms and the smaller ages. It would bridge the gap before we get into expanding the community crèche model, which can ultimately bring us to a public service and a dependable, education-first childcare system, centred on the rights of the child, that we can all rely on.
I thank the Labour Party for this motion. I am taking this on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman. I will actually stick to the script. I have a big interest in this area and a lot to say on it but I have to say what the Minister wants said first. If time allows, I will then come in myself. It was a really good and rich debate and I have opinions on it, which I will not be shy about sharing.
This timely motion from the Labour Party is a welcome opportunity to debate the important issue of early learning and childcare. An amendment to this motion is being tabled. While there is agreement on long-standing challenges in early learning and childcare, we also believe that the extensive commitments by this Government to address these long-standing challenges and the substantial progress we have made is delivering real, substantive, and sustained change. We are substantially reducing out-of-pocket costs of early learning and childcare for families; ensuring the supply of early learning and childcare places is meeting demand; increasing the pay and improving the working conditions of early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners; improving the quality of children's early learning experiences; and placing early learning and childcare providers on a solid, sustainable footing. We have backed up our commitments with significant new investment, which is set to exceed €1 billion in 2023, exceeding the investment target set out in First 5, five years ahead of schedule. We have used this investment to introduce a new funding model that has been designed to address the most challenging issues this sector faces. This funding model recognises early learning and childcare as a public good that demands more investment and involvement by the State and a closer working partnership with providers, with new responsibilities on both sides.
The new funding model, Together for Better, was launched by the Minister in September. Together for Better brings together three major programmes, namely, the ECCE programme, including the access and inclusion model, the national childcare scheme and the new core funding scheme, with a further programme, Tackling Disadvantage, under development. The ECCE programme enjoys uptakes rates in excess of 95% and has removed barriers to accessing preschool education, with data from Growing Up in Ireland showing that more than 60% of low-income families would not have been able to send their child to preschool without this programme. This motion suggests that participation rates of children in the north east inner city fall far short of uptake rates nationally. This is not borne out in the data we hold, which show uptake rates comparable to the national average. Work is under way to enhance the ECCE programme, with an independent evaluation now under way by Stranmillis University as a precursor to putting the ECCE programme on a statutory footing.
The award winning Access and Inclusion Model, AIM, is supporting more than 5,000 children with a disability each year to access the Early Childhood Care and Education, ECCE, programme. A commitment has already been made to enhance and expand AIM, following the completion of the AIM evaluation due to be published in early 2023.
The national childcare scheme, NCS, which was introduced in late 2019 is undergoing major reform. Two significant changes to NCS were introduced as part of budget 2022. The practice of deducting hours spent in preschool or school from the entitlement to the NCS subsidised hours came to an end, benefitting up to 5,000 disadvantaged children; and the universal subsidy was extended to all children under 15 years old who were using registered early learning and childcare. Additional funding of €121 million for the NCS was secured in budget 2023 to increase the universal subsidy from 2 January and to further reduce out of pocket costs of early learning and childcare to families. In parallel, there is work under way to implement the National Action Plan for Childminding, with a commitment to opening the NCS to childminders at the earliest possible opportunity.
This evening's motion refers to outdated OECD data that places Ireland as the second highest across the organisation when it comes to net childcare costs as a share of the household's net income. It is important to draw attention to the latest OECD data that show that Ireland has had the highest decrease in early learning and childcare costs to families across the EU over the period 2019-2021; and net childcare costs as a share of the household's net income for lone parents on low income in 2021 have fallen below the EU average for the first time.
Importantly, the latest OECD does not take account of enhancements to the NCS introduced in the last two budgets. The new core funding scheme, with an allocation of €259 million in its first year and participation rates of 94% services has supported the following. The historic employment regulation orders for the early years services sector, which came into effect in September of this year, provided for new minimum hourly rates of pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners and increased the wages of an estimated 73% of those working in the sector; the introduction of a new fee management system which means initially no increase in fees from September 2021 for the September 2022 to August 2023 programme year, which, in tandem with developments to the NCS, will deliver enormous benefits to families; the introduction of a requirement of services to offer the NCS to eligible families, which has given rise to a 10% increase in the number of services offering the NCS, thus substantially widening access to this State support; a significant growth in capacity allowing greater access for children and their families, as demonstrated by a 16% increase in place hours between 2019 and 2020; an increase in place hours where there is lower supply and higher demand, including baby place hours which were increased by 8%, and toddler place hours which were increased by 22%; and increased school-age place hours and opening hours both in term and out of term-time.
The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has secured addition funding of €28 million in budget 2023 for year two of core funding, €4 million of which will be used to remove the experience requirement on both graduate premiums under core funding, with the allocation of the remaining €24 million to be determined by evidence. Among the evidence that will inform this allocation is an independent review of the finances of small, sessional services that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has committed to concluding in quarter 1 of 2023 in recognition of the concerns expressed by some small, sessional providers.
There is also work under way to develop the new tackling disadvantage fund, whereby services will be provided with a proportionate mix of universal and targeted supports to support children and families accessing their services who are experiencing disadvantage. The provision of hot meals in early learning and childcare is currently being piloted as one potential support.
The Opposition refers in its motion to the lack of Government and State agency intervention and supports to ensure the availability of sufficient places. We do not accept this. Since 2015, the Government has funded the creation of more than 27,000 new places through an annual capital programme. This built on significant State capital investment under the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme 2000–2006 and the National Childcare Investment Programme 2006-2013 that funded the creation of 65,000 places representing approximately 40% of all places. Moreover, Government has allocated €70 million under the National Development Plan for the building blocks capital programme, with the majority of this funding earmarked for new places. Capital funding coupled with the success of core funding in increased capacity shows Government has been proactive in the area of supply management and has committed to further action, including working with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to update planning guidelines for early learning and childcare.
I said at the outset that Government agrees that the sector needs real and sustained reform. We are working to reshape early learning and childcare, changing the current relationship between the State and the provider to one of a partnership working together to deliver the public good. We have delivered unprecedented levels of State funding and have committed to doing more next year. The Government wants Ireland to have a world-class early learning and childcare sector. We have a roadmap to get there, have put the funding on the table to achieve it and have marked major milestones. By working in partnership with the sector, I believe we can achieve this goal.
I apologise that I never lifted my head while I was reading. I decided I would keep going. To be fair to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, since coming into office, he has put childcare front and centre. We can see that with the level of funding allocated. I know from his budgetary negotiation this year that he was relentless in ensuring more funds were put into core funding and that he would deliver on that, which he did. Notwithstanding that, Senator Sherlock and the Labour Party have put forward extremely valuable contributions as has everybody else. We all agree here that we are trying to catch up at pace to ensure there is choice, affordability and capacity in the system. Capacity is one of the biggest issues and that is not just in the baby room but all the way through.
I served on the city and county childcare committee in Galway back in the day and I also managed a childcare service for three years, so I speak with a bit of knowledge of the space. To be quite honest, back in the day and I am not talking 100 years ago but in 2011, if a new provider came into the area, the city and county childcare committee members did not want to displace anybody but at the same time they were not looking at the growth in population or where the numbers on the census were at. They had a particular role to play but at the same time capacity was not being built and that is why there is a shortfall. There is no denying it whatsoever. There are children who cannot access childcare spaces. It took me a second to understand what was being saying about the one- or two-bedroom apartments where as part of the building guidelines there were no plans to ensure crèche were provided on-site. That again was a missed opportunity in a particular location and people ended up travelling as a result.
I remember one of the best parliamentary questions I ever put was when I asked a question about how many registered childminders we had. I always remember it was 172 then and it has not improved much since. I am delighted to see that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is putting a great focus on childminding because what people need is choice and flexibility. That has to come into it. All of us ladies who might have children at home tonight, need that flexibility of a childminder who can be a day parent. I think that is a great phrase and had not heard it until tonight - the day parent piece. We need that flexibility. What children also need - and Senator Carrigy spoke about this - is consistency. If you have a child with additional needs, they really need consistency. That is why I lean more to the State model completely because that is where the consistency, the continuum of care and understanding the child is as well as putting them at the centre. Perhaps when we want to be really bold and ambitious, and when all Departments are working collaboratively and building new schools, we should not be displacing the childcare providers as was the case, but ensuring space is provided for them on the campus to meet the early childcare needs.
We must be bold and ambitious and all Departments must work together collaboratively. When we are building new schools we should not be displacing the childcare provider, as in the case the Senator mentioned. Rather, we should ensure there is space provided on the campus so we can meet the early needs requirements. We also must look at the additional needs in the same vein and it must all be an inclusive space. While I might be from Galway and I do not understand the challenges that are faced in areas of deprivation as well as the Senator does, we also need to understand how that inclusive community works. I know that in some places and situations the best place for a child is the childcare setting. That is the sad reality of it in some cases. We need to ensure those settings exist, that they are easy to access and are in areas with the right wraparound supports. In that case it is not just the child who needs the support; it is the mum, the family and all of us who need it.
Childcare has come a long way because Senator Warfield and I were on the Committee on Children and Youth Affairs, along with Deputy Sherlock. We put a lot of time into that committee and a lot of good and heavy lifting was done there. That has enabled the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman. Committees do good work and childcare was front and centre of that committee. The weight of support came out of that committee. The Government has done a lot and the Minister has done phenomenal work in this space. However, we still have a distance to travel on it. As a collective, we can travel that distance and we need to balance the four pillars. The Senator was telling me about public childcare; the cost of childcare; early years; and the ails of ECCE. We must have an integrated approach. That should be the ambition and I thank the Senator for giving me the opportunity to listen to the debate.
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. I thank the Minister of State for speaking about her views on what needs to be done and for relaying the Minister's comments. I thank everybody who has stayed on to contribute to the debate because it was a constructive one. There is a lot more that unites us than divides us in this Chamber, even if the amendment to the motion might suggest slightly differently. I communicated to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, this morning that I wanted to conduct this debate this evening in a constructive way acknowledging the progress that has been made. I also wanted to make a direct appeal and plea to him that there are urgent needs in the sector. While there are reviews under way, we need to see progress and we need to see it soon. That is why the motion specifically calls for specific emergency capital funding to address that supply shortfall in certain areas. It is disappointing that the Department's perspective on this is to dismiss the research which it will be aware of. This research was conducted by the Childhood Development Initiative for young people at risk and involved a subgroup of the Dublin North East Inner City taskforce, on which an official from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, sits. The Department is aware of the shortages in the inner city and that one in four children in the inner city cannot access a preschool place. We can continue to debate that but it is important to put on the record, notwithstanding what the Department is saying about what has been built in recent years, that we are not seeing that in the inner city of Dublin.
The other thing I want to say, which has been referred to by a number of Senators, is that it is wonderful that we finally have recognition of the professionals working in the early years sector. People who have undertaken years of study, because they want to work in the early years sector, are finally recognised. However, there needs to be a continued progression of pay year-on-year. Their pay rates remain far too low. Even this week I was talking to an early years provider that is paying €17 per hour for those coming in the door. It is not the €13 per hour basic rate that is part of the employment regulation order, and they are still finding it massively difficult to recruit and retain staff, and we need to look at that. Part of it is because of the status and the lack of respect there has traditionally been over the years towards the early years sector. If somebody had an interest in this they would go into primary school teaching as opposed to working in the early years sector. We need to change that and that requires continued year-on-year progress. It is also important to acknowledge the massive effort of the Big Start campaign over many years, along with other organisations, in highlighting that particular element of needing to respect professionals and improve the terms and conditions of professionals in the early years sector. Senator Carrigy spoke about the aims of the scheme and there is an irony whereby we have July provision for primary schools but we do not have any July provision for the aid scheme. I said earlier that is only part of ECCE and it is not continued beyond those hours so massive reform needs to take place there.
Senator Hoey spoke about the impact on women. We have a weekly gender pay gap in this country of about 22.4%. People talk about the hourly pay gap but who looks at their hourly pay? We think in terms of what we get paid per week. That gap exists because women work fewer hours and because they get paid less. Ultimately we must have a universally available childcare system in this country at an affordable rate. Our call to cap childcare fees at €200 would only cost €275 million per year. That is not massive money in the context of what the State is generating in tax revenues. While I welcome the constructive nature of the debate this evening, we are disappointed that the Department has not engaged with what we see as a severe supply issue. Senator Dolan talked about the school meals, which is a simple initiative that could be rolled out across the country. Unfortunately we cannot support the Government's amendment because it does not even acknowledge there is a shortage of places in some parts of the country. On that note I want to thank everybody who has been here for the debate. No doubt we will continue the conversation because together we all have to push for a better early years system in this country.
Amendment put:
The Seanad divided: Tá, 19; Níl, 8.
Tá
- Burke, Paddy.
- Buttimer, Jerry.
- Byrne, Maria.
- Carrigy, Micheál.
- Casey, Pat.
- Crowe, Ollie.
- Cummins, John.
- Currie, Emer.
- Daly, Paul.
- Dolan, Aisling.
- Fitzpatrick, Mary.
- Kyne, Seán.
- Lombard, Tim.
- Martin, Vincent P.
- McGreehan, Erin.
- O'Loughlin, Fiona.
- O'Reilly, Pauline.
- Seery Kearney, Mary.
- Wilson, Diarmuid.
Níl
- Flynn, Eileen.
- Hoey, Annie.
- Keogan, Sharon.
- Mullen, Rónán.
- Ó Donnghaile, Niall.
- Sherlock, Marie.
- Wall, Mark.
- Warfield, Fintan.
Tellers: Tá, Senators Seán Kyne and Erin McGreehan; Níl, Senators Marie Sherlock and Mark Wall.
Amendment declared carried.
Motion, as amended, agreed to.
Cuireadh an Seanad ar athló ar 9.52 p.m. go dtí 9 a.m., Déardaoin, an 8 Nollaig 2022.
The Seanad adjourned at 9.52 p.m. until 9 a.m. on Thursday, 8 December 2022.