Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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225. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs his plans to honour the Workplace Relations Commission recommendation regarding the pay claim of the county childcare committees' co-ordinators in budget 2021. [30636/20]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The City and County Childcare Committees (CCCs) are one of the key support mechanisms of my Department, and I want to acknowledge the important role they play in providing vital support and guidance to the early learning and care (ELC) and school age childcare (SAC) sector and to parents.

CCCs act as the local agent of my Department in the coordination and delivery of the national early education and childcare programmes and the implementation of Government policy at a local level, and in facilitating and supporting the development of quality, accessible ELC and SAC services for the overall benefit of children and their parents.

In 2005 the Minister for Finance sanctioned the rates payable to CCC managers as comparable to the rates applicable in the Local Authorities for Grade 6. Officials from my Department have been engaging with representatives from the CCCs, including both manager and Board of Management representatives, and their union representatives, in relation to a proposal for a review of the grading of CCC managers. This proposal sought a regrading of the role of CCC manager largely on the basis that the role has evolved significantly since it was first devised in 2002, and that the original linkage to the current grade is no longer appropriate.

Officials in my Department are continuing to engage with officials in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in order to resolve this matter.