Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 October 2020
346. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration the reason qualified and experienced childcare providers that run their businesses from home are prohibited from registering with Tusla preventing them from accessing the national childcare scheme; his plans to change the rule; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30164/20]
View answerChildcare providers who operate from their homes are required to register with Tusla and are thereby able to take part in the National Childcare Scheme if they care for four or more preschool children, or seven or more children of any age, from different families. The exemption from regulation - and therefore from the National Childcare Scheme - applies to those who care for smaller numbers of children, and is set down in Section 58L of the Child Care Act 1991.
Prior to February 2019, only childminders who cared for more than three preschool children of different families were subject to regulation and therefore required to register with Tusla (or, prior to the establishment of Tusla, notify the HSE). As from February 2019, when Section 22 of the Childcare Support Act 2018 came into force, the scope of regulation - and of subsidies - broadened also to include a provider who cares for more than six children of any age at one time.
On the basis of the 2018 report of the Childminding Working Group on Reforms and Supports for the Childminding Sector ('Pathway to a Quality Support and Assurance System for Childminding' ), in 2019 my Department published a Draft Childminding Action Plan, for the purpose of public consultation. The Draft Action Plan set out short, medium, and long-term measures on a phased basis for childminders to formalise their position over the next decade. It included specific proposals to extend regulation over a period of years to all paid, non-relative childminders, and thereby to open access to the National Childcare Scheme for all home-based childcare providers. An extensive consultation process on the Draft Childminding Action Plan took place in the latter part of 2019.
The Programme for Government commits to publish a report by year end on options to accelerate access to subsidies for non-relative childminders. Officials in my Department are currently finalising the Childminding Action Plan, drawing on the findings of the recent public consultation. While there has long been a need for such a plan, the introduction of the National Childcare Scheme provides a valuable new incentive for childminders to register with Tusla, giving them - and the parents who choose to use childminders - an opportunity that has not previously existed to access subsidies.
