Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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1872.To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the evidence base the Government uses to support privatisation in the early education sector, given the consistent evidence from experts indicating that privatisation has led to a crisis in the sector. [32698/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Programme for Government contains a number of commitments for early learning and childcare, including reforming the system to create one that brings together the best of community and private provision and the development of a new funding model for affordable, accessible, sustainable and high quality early learning and childcare.

An Expert Group was established in September 2019 to develop a new funding model for the early learning and childcare sector. Under their terms of reference, the Expert Group was not asked to propose changes to the current model of delivery (i.e. privately-operated provision), rather that the Group should seek to further achieve policy objectives of quality, affordability, accessibility and contributing to addressing disadvantage in a privately-operated system through increased public funding and public management.

In December 2021, Government approved the 25 recommendations contained in the Expert Group report, Partnership for the Public Good: A New Funding Model for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare. The recommendations were accepted in full by Government and implementation of this new funding model is well underway.

Of the 25 recommendations, three are grouped under the title 'Role of the State'. In particular, the final recommendation states that, “[I]n the medium term, the Minister should mandate the Department to examine whether some 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 and enhanced public management in 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 early learning and childcare, with new responsibilities on both sides.

In September 2022, I launched Together for Better, the new funding model for early learning and childcare that supports the delivery of early learning and childcare for the public good. This new funding model supports the delivery of early learning and childcare for the public good, for quality and affordability for children, parents and families as well as stability and sustainability for providers. Its primary purpose is to improve pay and conditions in the sector as a whole and improve affordability for parents as well as ensuring a stable income to providers.

Together for Better brings together the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, including the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), the National Childcare Scheme (NCS), Core Funding and Equal Start

This new funding model being implemented aims to transform the sector to one that is increasingly publicly funded and publicly managed. This is the start of a multi-annual investment plan – with investment this year exceeding €1.1 billion – achieving the First 5 investment target five years ahead of time. Full implementation of all recommendations, including recommendation 25, which would likely involve an estimate of cost and timeline for delivery of a portion of public provision, will be progressed in the coming years as additional funding is secured through the annual Estimates process.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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1873.To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the incentives that are in place to attract early childhood educators to the sector given the current staffing crisis. [32699/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I acknowledge that many early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC) services report staffing challenges in relation to recruitment and retention. In general, staffing pressures in the sector are caused not by insufficient supply of qualified personnel, but by high levels of staff turnover.

In line with commitments in First 5, in December 2021, I launched Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for ELC and SAC, 2022-2028. Nurturing Skills aims to strengthen the ongoing process of professionalisation for those working in ELC and SAC and to raise the profile of careers in the sector. It includes a career framework and commitments to support early years educators to upskill and develop their careers. It also includes commitments to reduce staff turnover, to attract graduates to enter and remain in the sector along with actions to actively promote careers in ELC and SAC.

The Nurturing Skills Learner Fund (NSLF) is a commitment in Nurturing Skills. I launched the pilot NSLF in December last. The new fund aims to assist early years educators to pursue ELC qualifications at level 7 and level 8 that have been approved by the Qualifications Advisory Board (QAB) while continuing to work in the sector.

At the heart of Nurturing Skills is a vision of “a well-qualified, skilled, diverse and valued professional workforce that is centred on children’s rights, needs and potential and that provides quality experiences for children in partnership with families, and which continues to advance its professional development within a coherent and competent system.” The new pilot NSLF will play an important role in achieving this vision and the commitment in First 5 to have a graduate-led ELC workforce by 2028.

In a very competitive labour market and with low levels of unemployment, recruitment and retention is a challenge for all employers, especially in low-paid sectors.

As the State does not employ staff in ELC and SAC services, neither I nor my Department set wage levels or determine working conditions for staff in the sector.

However, there is now, through the independent Joint Labour Committee (JLC) process, a formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate terms and conditions of employment including minimum pay rates for different roles in ELC and SAC services.

This process provided the first ever Employment Regulation Orders (ERO) for the sector, which came into effect in September 2022.

Recently, the Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail accepted proposals for new ERO for Early Years Services. The Orders commenced on 24 June 2024 and increased the minimum hourly rates of pay for all grades. In addition, the ERO removed the requirement for graduates to have 3 years’ experience before they are eligible for graduate minimum pay rates. It is estimated that 53% of those working in the sector will see their wages rise as a result of the new ERO.

Outcomes from the JLC process are supported by the Government through the Core Funding scheme, which has an allocation for this programme year alone of €287 million and will again increase this allocation by a further 15%, for the third year of the scheme, to €331 million.

I also recently established a sub-group of the Early Learning and Childcare Stakeholder Forum to discuss issues of recruitment and retention with stakeholders in the sector. This group has met on four occasions since December last year.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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1874.To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the plans that are in place to take Ireland from 24th place in public spending on early childhood education among 24 OECD member states with consistent data on early childhood spending. [32700/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Over the past nine budgets, investment in early learning and childcare has risen from €260 million in 2015 to €1.1 billion in 2024. Despite this unprecedented increase in investment, I accept that the level of investment is still behind international norms.

It is important to note that international comparisons on investment in early learning and childcare are to be treated with caution given the variation between countries in early learning and childcare systems, for example, the school starting age. GDP is also a misleading indicator in the Irish context. The OECD emphasises that, in the Irish context, “one should rely on other indicators” as GDP gives an inaccurate indicator of the country’s economic health. A modified GNI was recommended by the Economic Statistics Review Group as a more useful comparator. This is designed to exclude globalisation effects that are disproportionally impacting the measurement of the size of the Irish economy.

The First 5 Strategy published in 2018, commit the Government to at least doubling public spending on early learning and childcare by 2028. This target was reached in 2023, five years ahead of schedule when investment exceeded €1 billion for the first time.

A revised investment target was set in the second implementation plan for First 5, which I published in November 2023. This specifies that, over the period 2023-2028, Ireland will work to close the existing gap in public investment in early learning and care against the EU average.