Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 5 April 2017
350. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of early years practitioners currently registered and working across the State in early years services with qualification seven and qualification eight respectively. [16894/17]
View answerI understand that the Deputy is referring to the relevant qualifications (in Early Years or Early Childhood Care and Education) at which are placed at Levels 5, 6, 7 and 8 on the NFQ. I would like to bring it to the Deputy's attention that there is no professional registry for early years professionals, however, qualifications of staff members are verified through regulatory inspections (Tusla) for all providers and regulatory and contractual inspections (Pobal) for ECCE providers. For figures, the best indicator is last year's The Early Years Sector Profile Report 2015-16 which was published in November 2016. It is a survey which was administered by Pobal in conjunction with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs with the aim of providing a national picture of services providing early childhood care and education in Ireland. The survey on which the Report is based was completed by 79 per cent of childcare providers in April 2016. Pobal have extrapolated the figures provided in the Report in order to establish the qualification levels for early years practitioners at a national level. It is estimated that there are 23,291 early years practitioners currently employed in private and community services. Of these, 1,215 hold a level 7 on the National Qualification Framework (NFQ) while 2,687 hold a level 8 NFQ qualification.
The Early Years Sector Report 2015-2016 can be found on Pobal's website, www. pobal.ie.
