It will not happen. As the Deputy will know, we published a White Paper. Since then, my Department has taken a significant number of steps to implement these reforms. A staff team was established in my Department to lead the transition to the new model. It has developed a detailed implementation plan. We have a programme board, chaired by my Department, which has Government and independent membership. This will provide detailed oversight and advice to the implementation team. At the moment it is meeting monthly to …

The Deputy has asked plenty of questions, and I will do my best to answer. I am absolutely committed to the timeline, and my Department and all other Departments are working towards it. The point the Deputy made on the significant of involving communities in this change is important. We have work to do in terms of explaining exactly what the White Paper is at a national level and also at a specific local level. If community accommodation or a reception and integration centre is being set up locally, work is underwa…

I thank the Deputy. I am conscious of the need for a significant improvement in the pay and conditions of employment for early learning and childcare professionals. The level of pay they receive does not reflect the value of the work they do for children, families and our wider society. As the Deputy knows, the State is not the employer. We cannot directly determine the wages in the sector, but I am committed to doing whatever is in my power to influence that situation. As the Deputy knows, last December I set up a…

As the Deputy knows, we have engaged extensively on this with other Deputies in terms of local groups bringing similar issues to my attention. I have worked to put forward short-term solutions. I see the broadening out of the sponsorship element as part of that. If we need to do more to clarify roles, responsibilities and duties I am happy to do so. We are doing that piece of work in our examination of the NCS after one year. I specifically asked for a new element to be examined, namely the impact of the NCS on ser…

As the Deputy says, the issues are affordability for parents, sustainability for services and fair pay and conditions for staff. All that coming together will deliver quality for children, which is what we are trying to achieve. Whether the children are from the most disadvantaged backgrounds or not, quality for children is absolutely essential. We all recognise that this will require very significant increased investment. It will involve not just this Government; it will be a long-term project because we are so fa…

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following: “acknowledges: — the challenges faced by the early learning and childcare sector; — the particular challenges presented by Covid-19 for the sector and the tremendous efforts by early learning and childcare professionals and service providers during this period to keep services open and safe; notes that investment in the sector has increased by 141 per cent since 2015 and welcomes the commitment by Government to build on t…

I thank the Deputy for this Topical Issue and welcome the opportunity to speak on what is an extremely important matter. There are approximately 6,000 children in care in the State today. The majority of these children live with foster carers and a small number live in residential care. Appropriate oversight of foster care placements is important to ensure that the needs of children are met and that foster carers are supported. Under the National Standards for Foster Care 2003 and the Placement of Children in Care …

I thank the Deputy. He is right that there are a significant number of Irish social work graduates in the UK, Australia and other jurisdictions. Tusla has been particularly targeting those in the UK, using professional journals and so on as part of its advertising campaign. Tusla has had real success and 2020 was the first year for a long time that the net number of incoming social workers was greater than the number of those exiting, which is because of that conversion. It was taking a lot of agency staff and givi…

I thank the Deputy. An extensive amount of work has been done on this issue by my Department with the Departments of Health and Justice. The line Ministers have met on three occasions in regard to this specific legislation and how to advance the issue. The special rapporteur for child protection, Professor Conor O'Mahony, provided a detailed report on options in regard to providing full legal provisions here. The Attorney General has reviewed that report and has met with the three line Ministers. The matter was dis…

I welcome the attention that the Dáil is devoting tonight to the situation in Afghanistan and the terrible plight of its people. Like me, Members will have been distressed by the images of men, women and children enduring atrocious conditions outside Kabul Airport over many days just for the simple chance to flee Afghanistan, their home, and to get to a third country. When we see scenes such as these, hear the pleas of people in Afghanistan whose lives are in immediate danger and reflect on our country's own histor…

I am delighted to speak to the initiative that Niall Muldoon, the Ombudsman for Children, has been progressing over recent weeks. It is a timely debate as we see the impact of our vaccination programme on the levels of Covid-19 in the community and the return of children, young people and young adults to schools and further education campuses. The well-being of children should be a central priority for every government but for this Government that need is acute as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic. I am here to …

I thank the Deputies for their contributions to the statements this afternoon. I look forward to my engagement with Dr. Muldoon when we meet in the coming weeks to discuss his proposals in the A Better Normal document in greater detail. The child guarantee I spoke about earlier will help Ireland to sharpen its response and frameworks towards the goal of all children growing up with the same opportunities and access to quality support services that will allow them to thrive in society in a post-pandemic world. The G…

I thank the Senator for raising this issue, which my Department and I are monitoring on an ongoing basis and through formal reviews. I have met with the Senator and services in her area and I know she is particularly engaged on this issue. The national childcare scheme, NCS, represents the first ever statutory entitlement to financial support for early learning and childcare. It marks a shift away from previous schemes, which were based on medical card and social protection entitlements, to a progressive system of …

Throughout Covid we have supported all services and through the employment wage subsidy scheme we have also had a specific sustainability fund for services facing issues due to Covid or due to unintended consequences of some parts of the national childcare scheme. This fund has been providing additional supports to some services, particularly in areas of disadvantage. The State puts a significant amount of money into the childcare sector, at €630 million every year, but we all know that compared with other European…

I thank the Acting Chair. I appreciate it.

I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak on the Second Stage of this important legislation. The purpose of this Bill is to give full effect to the Taoiseach's announcement on 27 June 2020 that education and welfare functions would return to the Department of Education. These functions, namely, the functions vested in me, or under the Education Welfare Act 2000, and the administrative functions in relation to the administration of the home school liaison scheme and the school completion programme, were transfe…

I thank the Senators for their contributions to this debate. I am pleased to hear the broad cross-party and cross-group welcome for the Bill in principle. I listened carefully to what the speakers said and I will consider some of the issues they raised. I will respond to a few of the Senators now. The day-to-day responsibility for these services has been moved to the Department of Education by a statutory instrument, as the Chair said earlier. The essence of this Bill is to give a clear legal base or, as Senator Ke…

I thank the Senator for raising this issue, which my Department is monitoring on an ongoing basis and through formal reviews. The level of pay in the sector does not reflect the value of the work that early learning and care and school-age childcare practitioners do for children, families, society and our economy. I am doing all that is in my power to address this issue. However, as the Senator knows, my Department is not the employer, it does not set wage rates and it does not determine working conditions for staf…

I hope we can continue to grow the very significant amount of investment the State already puts into childcare. We have to remember that €638 million is going into the sector right now, plus the supports-----

-----we are providing in the context of the employment wage subsidy scheme, in respect of which, as the Senator knows, I was able to negotiate a sector-wide exemption. The Senator is absolutely right, however, that we are not putting enough into childcare as a country. We started investing in childcare only ten years ago. Those countries that the Senator rightly makes a comparison with identified years ago, as part of their social model, the importance of childcare. That has happened only recently in Ireland. There…