Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 March 2025
420. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the progress that has been made to develop a public model of childcare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13087/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Programme for Government marks a significant shift in the policy direction in relation to public delivery of early learning and childcare. There is a commitment for the first time to public provision and to capital investment to build or purchase State-owned facilities.
These commitments accompany other ambitious actions to significantly reduce out-of-pocket fees paid by parents, as well as increasing availability of places and improving pay and conditions for staff. This will enhance parental choice through ongoing support for public, private and community provision, as well as childminders.
Considerable reform has been implemented in the sector in recent years through increased public management and public funding. This has improved affordability, supported improved staff pay, and provided universal and targeted supports in the sector. A strong foundation has been put in place over the last five years, particularly through the introduction of new funding through the National Childcare Scheme and Core Funding, on which to build the next phase of reform in the early learning and childcare sector.
The framework for reform of the sector is set out in Partnership for the Public Good, the 2021 report of an Expert Group which was established to develop a new funding model for the sector.
The key theme of the recommendations in the report was to strengthen State involvement and enhanced public management in the sector, in conjunction with increased State funding.
The introduction of the new Core Funding scheme and its associated conditionality including in relation to staff pay and fee management; developments to the National Childcare Scheme and the Access and Inclusion Model; and the establishment of Equal Start this year represent the implementation of several of the specific recommendations in the report.
The sector is now predominantly publicly funded with necessary and appropriate conditionality attached to that funding, constituting certain features of a public model. As greater levels of public funding are anticipated to be invested in the coming years, public management will also increase commensurately.
These reforms also establish a strong basis for an element of the sector that is directly publicly delivered. In particular, the introduction of Core Funding less than three years ago has allowed for much more detailed insights into the operations and finances of early learning and childcare services which provides a necessary foundation for considering how public delivery could and should operate.
Some early scoping work has been carried out to explore options to introduce a segment of public provision. This will require much more detailed and extensive policy development and design in order progress to implementation stage, having regard to the wider policy emerging policy context as set out in the Programme for Government.
There are different understandings of what public provision means to stakeholders in the sector. Issues relating to staff employment, pay and conditions; ownership and management of buildings; operating models; governance arrangements; service offering; appropriate level of supply of services; fees for parents; and the overall funding model are being examined by officials.
