Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 September 2020
33. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration the supports afforded to childcare facilities to enable them to remain open and viable in view of the fact that in the first six months of 2020 Tusla was notified of 123 closures of childcare settings (details supplied); and the steps he is taking to improve issues regarding sustainability and capacity in the sector. [22323/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThis question concerns the supports afforded to childcare facilities to enable them to reopen and to remain viable. In view of the fact that in the first six months of this year, Tusla was notified of 123 closures of childcare settings, what steps are being taken to ensure sustainability and capacity in the sector?
Each year a number of early learning and school-age childcare services close for a variety of reasons. Services intending to close must notify Tusla, the childcare regulator, of that fact. The most recent available data for the year to date show that 123 services, as the Deputy noted, have notified that they will not be reopening. A total of 39 new services have also notified Tusla that they will be opening this year. The number of services closing this year to date is slightly lower than the same number last year. In total, 200 services shut last year whereas in 2017 and 2018 about 150 shut in each year.
On supports, in the July stimulus package announced on 25 July, I provided a very substantial stimulus package for the childcare sector. It included the resumption of all my Department's childcare schemes and access to the employee wage subsidy scheme. We estimate that at present, the employee wage subsidy scheme funds about 38% of childcare providers' costs on average. That is obviously a highly significant direct State support. In June, my Department previously announced both a capital and a reopening support grant and about 3,800 services signed up for these. In total, 94% of services which normally open over the summer resumed their service. This illustrates the success of the measures the Government took to support the childcare sector. I want to commend the sector on the hard work of both the providers and the childcare professionals and the real commitment they demonstrated, particularly to the children in their care, in undertaking that very major reopening. I am conscious that some services may struggle to remain viable in the coming months. Consequently, I have ensured that €2 million is available in a Covid stability fund and I believe the Deputy may have a question for me about that later on as well.
Yes, I believe one of the other questions I have tabled concerns sustainability. The Minister will not be surprised at this stage by my saying that the sector probably has been undervalued and underfunded for years. Hopefully the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, will be the Minister to change this and to ensure the sector is funded correctly. There will always be a certain amount of closures as it is natural for that to happen but there were 42 in County Dublin, 16 in County Cork and 13 in County Kildare. What supports are available for parents in those areas? Are they perhaps being given support through the city and county childcare committees to access other childcare places? That does not even take into account the workers in that sector. There have been job losses, which we do not want to see given the amount of job losses that we are going to see anyway due to Covid. This is a sector in which we want to hang on to those valuable and highly-trained staff. What supports are there for them when a facility closes?
The Deputy is absolutely right about the need for that element of wider support. When she put down a motion on this in the last term, we had a good discussion about some of the key things that are happening in the Department around workforce planning, looking at building real careers for childcare professionals, as well as the operational model which I brought through Cabinet and in terms of the expert group looking at the overall funding of childcare, how it is funded in other countries and drawing useful comparisons. As such a large body of work is being done at the moment, some of which was begun by my predecessor and some of it by me. By the middle of next year, we hope to have substantive pieces of research done upon which we can look to build the future vision of childcare.
On the Deputy's specific question, the city and county childcare committees can engage with parents and give them advice about other services which have vacancies in situations where a childcare service has ceased to operate.
I am not sure if this is part of a further question but I will take the opportunity to ask it now. I refer to after-school services. I have come across a number of after-school services which are running their normal day service but cannot seem to run the after-school part or the collection part. The transport may be an issue or there is some issue around the after-schools. In the instances that I have come across, parents are being told it is to do with Covid guidelines. I do not see how that can be the case. Does the Minister have any information specifically relating to after-school services and the situation with them?
Like the Deputy herself, I do not initially see how the guidelines would impact on the after-school element more than any other element. They apply generally and I am not sure if it is the rules themselves or a financial concern about staffing to monitor that in and out process. Again, there are financial supports specifically provided in the context of the reopening grants and it is a significant payment. If the Deputy has more specific details I am happy to touch base with her subsequently on that.
