Kathleen Funchion urges improvements to National Childcare Scheme
Kathleen Funchion addressed the Dáil on funding and reforms for early learning and child care, focusing on the National Childcare Scheme (NCS), the new funding model, workforce development and after‑schools. She argued the commitment to at least double investment in early learning and child care between 2019 and 2028 must be implemented carefully, with targeted fixes to the NCS rather than a return to old schemes.
Investment target
Kathleen Funchion recalled the whole-of-government target to at least double investment in early learning and child care between 2019 and 2028, noting this would represent roughly a 1 billion euro annual investment by 2028 compared with the current voted expenditure of 638 million. She said the new funding model and an independently chaired expert group - which has published research and engaged the sector - will be key to ensuring additional resources deliver returns for children, families and the State. The expert group's report is being finalised and is due to be submitted in November, and she said it is influencing her input into the budget negotiations for budget 2022.
National Childcare Scheme concerns and interim measures
Kathleen Funchion set out concerns raised about the NCS in the wake of a protest earlier in the week, and emphasised the need for targeted research into how the NCS worked in its first year, particularly its impact on disadvantaged services. She described interim changes that have been introduced, including broadened sponsorship and the creation of a sustainability fund to support services in difficulty, but she said sponsorship alone is not the overall fix.
Impact on services and families
She warned that some services are covering shortfalls themselves, effectively "robbing Peter to pay Paul", because siblings and other children are falling outside the old and new models and services feel obliged to keep families in. She said many families will not involve Tusla and may simply withdraw children if services cannot bridge the gap, and argued that older funding should remain in place in the interim so that services do not reach a closure point while a durable solution is found.
Afterschools and workforce development
Kathleen Funchion noted that after‑school services are distinct from childcare and should be considered for a separate funding stream as part of the review. She also underlined the importance of the workforce development plan and using the evidence from the national child care scheme and expert group research to inform budgetary allocations and strengthen the sector going forward.
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This question is largely in relation to double state investment in child care by 2028 of the ongoing future funding model and workforce development plan process and the national child care scheme review will inform budgetary allocations for the sector on time for the budget 2022 announcement. I am really looking to focus on that issue with the NCS and the after schools which was the reason for the protest on Tuesday and also I want to mention something about the workforce as well. Thanks, Minister. So first five, the whole of government strategy for babies, children and young people and families as I said includes a target to at least double the level of investment in early learning and child care between 2019 and 2028 and obviously as I said earlier on the programme for government commits to achieving that which would represent a 1 billion euro investment per annum by 2028 and obviously this will represent a very substantial increase in the voted expenditure for this sector which as we said is 638 million this year and I think that new funding model that I spoke about earlier on will be a key vehicle to ensure that the additional investment delivers those really important returns for children, for families and for the state. So I want to make sure that when we put extra resources into early learning and child care that we get the best possible use from them and as I say the expert group is independently chaired, it is leading on this issue, it has undertaken a very significant amount of research and also has engaged with the sector and with the various stakeholders within the sector and I think that is really important and the emerging findings from the national child care scheme are also contributing to the evidence that underpins its work. So it has very transparent deliberations, they have published as I said the research and that is available for anybody to engage with. The report is being finalised at the moment, it will be submitted to me in November and as I say it is influencing my input into the budget negotiations this year which are still ongoing. In terms of the NCS and the issues that were raised outside the Dáil earlier this week, you know and I have engaged with you significantly about this Deputy, we have brought in some interim changes to broaden out sponsorship, to create a sustainability fund where services are in difficulty but I have also asked for a separate piece of research in the context of how the NCS worked in its first year to specifically look at its impact on services that are disadvantaged. So look I am conscious of this issue, we are getting the research to make sure that our responses are properly targeted to dealing with the problems that have emerged. I am going to focus on this first response in relation to NCS and the funding where kids are kind of falling through the cracks and I know I have raised it with you on a number of occasions and acknowledged that you did come out to meet with people on Tuesday as well at that protest but I suppose just to give a few practical examples there are several services and it is not just a my constituency constituency that they are nationwide where they are saying siblings for example are in the old model and then kids that are coming into the system now are falling outside of that so the service is actually trying to make up the difference. I understand about the sponsorship situation but the vast majority of these cases people are not going to go to Tusla they don't want in general families don't want to bring that service on themselves and they are not going to go down that road and more than likely if that is said to them they are just going to pull their child out of the service. So services are stepping up and basically trying through other funding streams or robbing Peter to pay Paul to try and keep those kids in that system because they feel really guilty even though they shouldn't but they are saying to that child and that family that they might know for years you know sorry we can't we can't take you in. The NCS is a really good system and it's one that I think we can continue to develop and strengthen there is no doubt that an issue has arisen in terms of services in area of high disadvantage but I believe we have to work to fix the issue with the NCS as opposed to going back to some of those old schemes. I think the future is with the NCS but your correct sponsorship isn't isn't the fix. I undertook the broadening of sponsorship to give support to services on the interim basis. I think that had some element in assisting you know about 2,000 young people across the country to access services straight away but it isn't the overall fix and I accept that. But again you know we've an issue has come up we need to do the piece of research to determine how exactly we can bring about a fix that is long lasting and ensures that those services who are often making up the difference themselves in terms of their own resources to ensure those sort of services are properly resourced going forward. Yeah just to say in relation to that I mean I think most people would accept if something is not working you have to have a period of time where you look at fixing it but this has dragged on and I think what people are looking for in the interim is that the older funding be kept in place until a solution is found. That way then nobody is paying a price and nobody is disadvantaged because otherwise you're coming up with a solution potentially when a lot of these children and services may have kind of faced closure point. And just to say as well and the children's committee on Tuesday one of the points the after schools were making is that they really should be seeing like they're not childcare obviously they're a separate type of situation they're after schools and that a new funding stream or funding situation should be looked at for them and I think that should be considered as part of the review. And I just want to really briefly mention those who work in the sector next week we really need to see something in the budget for those early years professionals that you know we all know doing amazing work. They're on very low wages in really difficult situations and they need to see something next week to give them hope to stay in this sector. Thanks Cahirlik. Thanks sir. Well as you know that the older funding mechanisms were kept in place for those children who are already on the schemes but we are looking to move new children coming in onto the new scheme. As I said and look you know as long as I've been in this role I have been engaging on this issue and you've raised this and I give full credit for that but you know I have engaged with the issue. I've met with the services I've listened to the issues we've brought in some interim solutions to try and get more children into the scheme get them the full the full number of hours. We're undertaking the research and we'll act on foot of that research and I think that's the way because this is an issue that's come up and I know from engaging with some services they said they foresaw this but it's an issue that has arose and rather than you know having a knee jerk response to it we want to undertake that piece of research to determine how exactly we can bring a fix for the NCS to ensure that it continues to work effectively for everybody. and that no one is left at a disadvantage.
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