Gino Kenny urges greater state role in child care provision

It's a good question, it's a good question, it's a good question, it's a good question, it's a good question, it's a good question in the upcoming general election and in the last number of decades about child care provision where it becomes almost not affordable for very many parents, so what provision have the government put in in terms of increasing child care provision in the state? Good morning Deputy, thank you very much for your question and improving access to quality and affordable early learning in child care is a key priority of myself as Minister and the data available shows that the level of capacity in the sector has risen substantially in recent years but I am also absolutely aware nationally indeed in my own constituency as well some parents are having difficulty in locating the type of affordable early learning and care provision that they would like for their children and I think that is particularly acute for younger children. The building blocks capital schemes which operated over 2024 and will operate next year are supporting services to increase capacity through two strands, the expansion scheme that was drawn down this year and the extension scheme which I will announce in the next number of weeks which will be drawn down in 2025 and that extension scheme will mean €25 million of capital funding is available next year to deliver thousands of new affordable early learning and child care places and it will offer funding for larger scale projects to enable both existing community services and private services to build new capacity into their current premises by means of physical extension. It will also allow existing community services to apply to purchase or to construct entirely new premises and this programme of support for the provision of places it builds on a substantial legacy of fostering the development of the sector and the establishment and expansion of services most explicitly through previous capital programmes but equally through the various current funding streams. My department will continue to progress a range of actions such as core funding and the recently launched initiative for child minders to ensure the supply of early learning and child care needs meets demand and work in this area is being led by a supply management unit which I established in my department earlier this year. I also work closely with ministerial colleagues and particularly with Minister Darrell O'Brien we're looking to review the regulations surrounding the building of a child care facility when new housing is built and that happens but the child care facility often isn't delivered or maybe isn't designed appropriately so we're looking to revise those regulations and we'll be bringing for draft soon I hope. I think we acknowledge there has been progress in terms of child care provision but I think we also acknowledge that the disparate nature of child care in the state where you know the majority that you know the provision of child care is is privatised and I think a better model is where you look at say a Scandinavian model where it's it's it's it's it's it's a public uh publicly funded uh essentially free child care provision um and that's about a model then I think the disparate nature of what we have at the moment so do you accept that we have to kind of have that model rather than the model that we have at the moment uh I mean that model is um again it's very arbitrary in terms of uh how you can actually you know parents can get the provision of child care and also kind of staff shortages which are having a huge effect on child care um and there's a lot of big big factors in tension attend in terms of retention of staff so and given all that do you think a better model is the the model that we you know that has been kind of alluded to is particularly around like Scandinavia thanks thanks deputy and I think it's important that you know in acknowledging the imperfections of how our our system operates right now we always acknowledge the amazing work done in so many services both community and private all over the country in terms of looking after our our our children and providing early learning and care and I believe there is a greater role for the state in the direct provision of early learning and care I think particularly in areas of um of uh of low of low provision in areas where capacity is particularly under pressure I would like to see see the state having a greater role uh role there and I think that would be beneficial in terms of addressing some of those capacity challenges that we spoke about I agree with you in terms of the issue of the the the importance of the recruitment and retention of staff that's why in the budget yesterday I announced a dedicated allocation of core funding in 2025 that is dependent on a new wage agreement being reached between employers and the and those unions representing uh representing um child care professionals In terms of cost um in some cases uh child care for some families is costing over a thousand euros per month and that's cheap in some ways I know that's a huge cost that's almost like a little mortgage um what would you consider acceptable in terms of if just in a model where you know parents have to pay what would you accept uh that's you know a manageable um fee in terms of what parents have to pay for because obviously them costs shouldn't be accepted and they're crippling uh for parents and I know there's a community-based uh crisis which are which are kind of free and on demand but there's also a huge cohort of people have to pay a huge amount of money how do you kind of address their kind of uh I suppose child care needs and the cost that's actually for them families thank you deputy I hope I've demonstrated over the last four years my absolute determination to reduce costs and I've done that through the increases in the NCS the national child care scheme and on average we've been able to half costs for parents I think that has to be acknowledged I'd like to go further if I'm part of the next government I look to continue to go further but I just caution deputy I hope in the next general election child care is a central issue but I hope the debate just isn't about the cost because right now your question actually sets out what the bigger challenge is I don't think cost is the biggest challenge right now I think capacity is the biggest challenge right now and the big question the next government is has to address is how do we make sure every child has access to the type of early learning and care that they their parent wants I think the first step to doing that is to provide that statutory right to ecce 95 of children get ecce right now but it's not a legal right I think if you enshrine it in law it places an exam a greater emphasis on the next government to ensure that those places are delivered as the core of early learning and care you