Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 February 2022
491. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his attention has been drawn to a poll (details supplied) which states that 78.1% of those who answered agree that there should be State-run childcare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6605/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI thank the Deputy for bringing this poll to my attention. I am conscious of the need to deliver reforms to the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) sector so that it meets the needs of parents, providers, those working in the sector, and, most importantly, children.
The Programme for Government commits to reforming the early learning and childcare system to create one that brings together the best of community and private provision.
Not including special Covid funding arrangements, an estimated 60% of funding for ELC and SAC services comes from the State. The First 5 strategy published in 2018 committed to at least double expenditure in the sector by 2028 to approximately €1 billion.
An Expert Group to develop a new funding model for ELC and SAC was established in 2019 to consider how best to structure this additional investment. It was independently chaired and comprised of national and international experts across multiple fields. It met 21 times and has now completed its work.
The report of the Expert Group, Partnership for the Public Good: A new Funding Model for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, was published on 7 December 2021 following consideration by Government and acceptance of its 25 recommendations. Work has now commenced on implementation of these recommendations. The report of the Expert Group is available here: www.first5fundingmodel.gov.ie/report/ .
The new funding model outlined in Partnership for the Public Good comprises four key elements: two new elements (Core Funding and Tackling Disadvantage funding) and two elements which are developments on the existing funding approaches of the Early Childhood Care and Education programme and the National Childcare Scheme.
The vision of the Expert Group as articulated in the report is for a sector that is "increasingly publicly funded and publicly managed, delivering a service for the public good, through a partnership between the State and providers, to the benefit of children, parents, practitioners, and society overall". The report envisages a substantially increased role for the State in a range of areas, including fee management, capacity planning, provision of information to parents, planning the development of the sector, supporting services, and managing centre closures. The report also recommends that the Minister should mandate the Department to examine, in the medium term, whether an element of public provision should be introduced alongside private provision.
Taken together, these recommendations reflect a key theme of the report, which is the importance of strengthened State involvement in the running of the sector, in conjunction with increased State funding. This is underpinned by a cultural shift to a partnership relationship between providers and the State that reflects the public good dimension of ELC and SAC.
Announcements in Budget 2022 signaled the commitment to the first stage of implementation of the Expert Group’s recommendations. In particular, Budget 2022 allocated €69 million to a new Core Funding stream, equivalent to €207 million in a full year. Full implementation of all recommendations will be progressed in the coming years as additional funding is secured through the annual Estimates process. Progress on the implementation of the Expert Group’s recommendations will be reported in the context of the Annual Implementation Report for the First 5 whole-of-government strategy for babies, young children and their families.
