Kathleen Funchion: Demands Wage Justice for Early Years Staff

First of all, thanks for the opportunity for this debate and I wanted to start by making a special mention of our early years on childcare professionals who often feel forgotten and overlooked. I know they feel often very undervalued and ignored. They've been back at work for several weeks now. They've reopened our sector both last year and this year for essential workers and vulnerable children as the third wave of this horrible pandemic rages through the country and tomorrow actually, ironically, marks the one year anniversary of 30,000 childcare professionals. creche owners and childcare, various practitioners and parents marching through Dublin to demand better terms and conditions. The service they have provided to essential workers and vulnerable children has been so important and a lifeline for so many families. They've really stepped up to the challenges posed by COVID-19 and many services have taken in older children, school-aged children, to try and help facilitate frontline workers. They've been absolutely essential in alleviating the stress many parents feel during the last wave that we went through. the service they've grown through. Their skills, their professionalism, their professionalism, and the contribution they make to the education of our young people is invaluable. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank them for their commitment. they certainly want more than just thanks and admiration, they want better paying conditions, they deserve better paying conditions and they want their work to be valued by action of this government, they want their voices to be heard. We continue to have a broken childcare system that has been underfunded and the reality is, and I hear it on a daily basis, we do not value, sorry, the government unfortunately feel that they do not value our early years and our childcare professionals. I know and I appreciate that a lot of focus obviously has been on protecting people's lives and cannot be understated the impact this terrible disease has had on all of our health, our freedom, liberty, homegrown businesses, our children and people's mental health, our children's mental health, the list really is endless when we look at it but it has impacted every aspect of our lives but it has presented us with a unique once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to completely overhaul the current childcare system. The reality is there can be no recovery without you know a properly funded childcare sector that works for everybody, a strategy that doesn't simply patch up what we what we have but thinks big and is brave. So I'm kind of conscious of time so I'll move to my question. So the first question, ironically, is it kind of covers a lot of what I've just said around wages, terms and conditions for early years educators and childcare professionals. Now that we do have the wage subsidy scheme in place, can the government commit to continuing this after the pandemic? Obviously it would need to be increased as well and we would need to see a proper wage scale in place and I'd just like to ask the Minister, that's the first question. I just have three others as well. Minister. Thanks very much Deputy and thanks for your comments and your recognition of the sector. As the Deputy knows, the employee wage subsidy scheme is an all-of-economy economic support and is one that we were successful in getting applied to the childcare sector, to the entire sector and an exemption from the turnover requirements and it's been absolutely essential in supporting the sustainability of services. It's currently due to end for at the end of March and at that period the government will be reviewing what additional supports need to be put in place for the economy. I'm very conscious of the low wages in this sector. The government have committed and I have committed to prioritising addressing that and as I've outlined today, we have the first steps towards that in the pre-JLC process, which I'm very pleased to see has taken place successfully. I'm to get a report from Dr. Kevin Duffy in the next number of days and I look forward to updating the House on what measures I'll take to progress that. Deputy Funcheon. Deputy Funcheon. Deputy Funcheon. Deputy Funcheon. Deputy Funcheon. Can I clarify, have I the rest of this time or three minutes of that to Deputy Tully? Deputy Funcheon. You've all the time you like within 5.48 minutes. Deputy Funcheon. Okay, that's fine. I just don't want to take any of my colleagues' time and sometimes when you're trying to watch that as well. Thanks, Minister. I should have said I do recognise that you mentioned the JLC, a process I would be familiar with from previous work with CIP2, so I would hope that that will be a good and beneficial process, but I would make the point that I do believe government can actually make that intervention in relation to wage scales without having a JLC process, but I welcome it as a step definitely in the right direction. My second question is in relation to just the emergency funding for the sector. Will this be continued in terms of actually increased investment in the sector once we're out of this pandemic? Thanks, Minister. Now, we need to be brief, Minister, because we have to try and get in Deputy Tully, I think. Minister? Yeah, absolutely. Look, we've put in a very substantial amount of money into the sector to keep it sustainable and to keep services open and to match the huge determination that we've seen from providers and childcare professionals to do the same, both in the context of the continuation of the existing payment schemes and the additional money invested through the EWSS. We'll be looking at, we are examining what happens from the 5th of March on when we look at those measures. Obviously, the longer term funding of this sector is a key issue as well. You know we have the expert funding group. They've brought forward a number of papers already. I would hope to have substantial information from them halfway through this year to be able to inform, I suppose, the advocacy I make for additional funding in Budget 2022. Thank you. Deputy Tully? No? One minute left. I just have one question, and it's in relation to the vaccine. And I know there's been some confusion over whether it's Category 6 or Category 11. I think Category 6 actually says key workers. It doesn't say childcare or early years professionals. So I'm just wondering, can we get absolute clarity that they are now Category 6, or are they still in Category 11? If you know that, Minister, or if not, if you can come back to me. Thanks. Minister? Thanks, Deputy. I know there's some confusion about that, and certainly I regret that any confusion was in the ether. Obviously, responsibility for the programme rests with the Department of Health and the HSC. Currently, ELC and SAC staff are priority 11 for vaccination. And I have advocated with the HSC and with the Department of Health that that prioritisation continues to be re-examined. I know Deputy Cullen Ann got a response that indicated a higher priority. I've asked the HSC to contact him, and I think they may have contacted him this morning with a correction on that point. But I think it is important to say that me and my department continue to engage with the Department of Health on the prioritisation of childcare professionals within the vaccination programme. And as evidence changes in any way, we will continue to do so. Thank you, Minister.