Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 March 2013
441. Deputy Colm Keaveney asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will provide an estimate by county of the number of unregulated child care providers; the measures being taken to address this issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13621/13]
View answerPre-school services, which includes childminding services, in Ireland are governed by Part VII of the Child Care Act 1991 and by the Child Care (Pre-School Services) (No 2) Regulations 2006.
Section 51 of the Child Care Act 1991 outlines the category of childcare providers that must notify their service to the HSE and that are subject to the Regulations and to inspection. Section 58 of the Act provides for exemptions for certain categories of childminders from the provisions of Section 51 and the services exempted under this section are not required to give notice to the HSE of their service.
Childminders who are not subject to the requirement to notify are, however, encouraged to voluntarily notify their service to their local City or County Childcare Committee which provides a range of supports to enable them to improve the standards of their childcare service. These supports include the Childminders Tax Exemption scheme which provides for a tax exemption for those childminders who have satisfactorily participated in the Voluntary Notification process and whose annual income from childminding does not exceed €15,000. Despite these supports the number of childminders who opted to voluntarily notified their services only reached approximately 1,250 in 2011. While my Department continues to actively promote the notification of childminding services and the participation of childminders in quality and training programmes, it is not in a position to prevent parents entering into informal arrangements with childminders who are outside the scope of the Regulations.
While I am aware that nearly all of the pre-school services in the country are participating in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme and are subject to the Regulations, there are no means available to my Department to calculate the number of childminders, providing childcare from their own homes, who are not subject to the Regulations and who have chosen not to participate in the voluntary notification process.
My Department has commenced work on Ireland's first Early Years Strategy. I have received Government approval for the approach I am taking in developing this Strategy as an innovative and dynamic blueprint for the future development of our Early Years sector, aimed at providing a coherent approach to seeking to improve the lives of children from birth to the age of six. One of the policy issues which I have identified for consideration in the preparation of the Early Years Strategy is the development of the childminding sector as a fully-integrated component of early childhood care and education, in particular for the under-one age group.
