Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 October 2020
35. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration to outline his plans to help childcare providers overcome the challenges arising from the hive registration and applications for a childcare identifier code key system (details supplied). [25972/20]
View answerWhat might the Department and the Minister do to assist childcare providers, especially those in disadvantaged areas, to overcome the challenges they have experienced with the early years HIVE registration and application system brought under the national childcare scheme?
The Deputy is the third to raise issues with the HIVE system today. Again, I acknowledge there have been problems. I believe some of these problems are specific to the Covid-19 context we are in, but I also acknowledge that the response could have been better. We have to learn from that for the registration scheme next year.
The information technology system used to administer childcare schemes, the early years platform, is new. It was designed to meet the current and future needs of administering the various schemes in my Department. The HIVE was used for national childcare scheme applications from last year. Multiple stakeholder and interest groups were consulted in its development. We are seeing incremental improvements in it. Like any new system, there have been flaws. The fact that these flaws have arisen in a time when childcare providers were working to repurpose their facilities to deal with covid and the various issues created by a new registration amounted to the perfect storm. I understand and know it has created stress for providers. Where Deputy McAuliffe or any other Deputy see specific issues brought to their attention by providers, my Department and I will be happy to act to address them.
One parliamentary question might be an early warning system, but three might be an alarm. While I accept the response with regard to the bedding-in period, no amount of bedding-in will help to tackle the issue of the way the scheme is being applied in disadvantaged areas. Representatives from the Aisling Project, an after-school project in Ballymun, and the Poppintree Early Education Centre have told me they are having real issues. Previously they would have been able to deal directly with Pobal for children of parents who were having difficulties securing a place but now they are unable to do that. The parents in these cases are often in crisis. They face real issues and they are unable to manage and negotiate the literacy and digital literacy issues.
I accept the sponsorship scheme outlined by the Minister is in place, but public health nurses are unable to negotiate it. They are not getting the necessary resources from the HSE. Perhaps he might reflect on the questions today and look specifically at how the scheme applies in places such as Ballymun. I would appreciate it if he would come back to us on the matter.
We will leave it like that as we have run out of time. The Deputy is happy for the Minister to go back to him.
