Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 July 2023
511. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will give positive consideration to extending the paid maternity leave period in budget 2024 to reflect the fact that there is an acute lack of place for babies under 12 months in childminding facilities and this often requires parents to take unpaid leave from work. [32440/23]
View answerThe Maternity Protection Act 1994 and the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004 provide a pregnant employee with six months of paid maternity leave and an additional 16 weeks of unpaid leave, alongside other entitlements such as breastfeeding breaks which will be extended to two years following the birth of the child through the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023.
In addition, each parent of a child is now entitled to seven weeks Parent's Leave and Benefit to be taken within the first two years of a child's life or adoptive placement. The EU Work Life Balance Directive requires that this leave entitlement be extended to nine weeks by August 2024.
All forms of family leave are kept under review to ensure that they are effective in supporting families and children.
In addition, the availability of high-quality early learning and childcare is a key Government priority. My Department monitors early learning and childcare capacity on an ongoing basis, with a particular focus on responding to the unmet early learning and childcare needs of families.
The annual data captured by Pobal on behalf of my Department - through the Early Years Sector Profile Survey - is one important data source that allows us to monitor supply and demand. In addition to this survey data, my Department also relies on data from the register of services held by Tusla, data provided by services as part of their application for Core Funding and has also conducted several surveys with parents. Since 2020, five parent surveys have been undertaken by Ipsos MRBI on behalf of the Department.
Based on data captured through the Early Years Sector Profile Surveys 2021/22 (gathered in Spring 2022 with a response rate of 82.5%) – extrapolated to take account of all services – there was a vacancy rate of 15% for children under 12 months and 6% for children aged 1-2 years old. This compares with a national vacancy rate of 16% for children of all ages.
Data collection for the Early Years Sector Profile 2022/23 is currently underway and will give an updated position.
A series of steps are being taken to address issues of undersupply.
The network of 30 City/County Childcare Committees across the country are in a position to match children and families to services operating with vacant places and engage proactively with services to explore possibilities for expansion among services, particularly where there is unmet need.
Under the National Action Plan for Childminding, there is a commitment to open up access to the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) to parents who use childminders following the extension of regulation to childminders.
Some €70m has been allocated to my Department through the revised National Development Plan (NDP) – with the majority of this funding earmarked for new places.
My Department, in partnership with the Department of Housing Planning and Local Government, is in the process of updating the 2001 Planning Guidelines for Local Authorities on Early Learning and Childcare Settings. As part of this work, my Department has been included in the updated list of prescribed bodies that need to be notified on certain planning matters, including the formulation of County Development Plans and Local Area Plans.
In addition, Core Funding - introduced in September 2022 - has already proven to be effective in expanding capacity, particularly in areas of undersupply, including places for babies and toddlers, and additional funding secured in Budget 2023 for year two of Core Funding provides further funding to invest in capacity growth of 3%.
Parents experiencing difficulty in relation to their early learning and childcare needs should contact their local City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) for assistance. Contact details for CCCs may be found on www.myccc.ie.
