I thank the Deputy. The ECCE scheme involves a flat rate per child. The really good point about the NCS is that the subsidy can be tailored to the particular child. The NCS gives greater subsidies to those children who are most in need because of their familial circumstances. Therefore, the amount that each provider is getting has to be linked to the particular child, and that is done through the CHICK. It is a more complicated system than the one used under the ECCE scheme but this is because the result and suppor…

My Department has been providing a substantial amount of money to all childcare providers across the country this year though the employment wage subsidy scheme and predecessor schemes to reduce greatly the burden of paying staff. I hope that same system will not be needed next year, assuming we move away from the current Covid circumstances. Where there are problems, both Pobal and the city and county childcare committees, CCCs, are available to support parents to the extent that they can. It is a consequence of c…

I thank the Deputy. Officials of my Department are reviewing the Workplace Relations Commission's consideration of the pay rates of the managers of the CCCs. The CCCs comprise one of the key support mechanisms of my Department. I acknowledge the important role they play in providing support and guidance to early learning and care and school-age childcare providers and parents. The CCCs act as my Department's local agents in every county. I recently met with representatives from Childcare Committees Ireland and obta…

I met with representatives from SIPTU once in respect of this matter. I have met with those representatives in the context of wider engagement with the childcare sector on a number of occasions. I met with representatives of ICTU once. This specific issue did not arise in those contexts. I am happy to address it if it does come up. There is a need for increased trade union representation within the professional childcare sector. I want to see more workers represented by a trade union because I believe that will hel…

As regards the specific situation of the managers, there is a process in train and I am happy to update the Deputy on that and to engage with that process. On the wider issue of pay across the sector, we discussed this issue extensively during questions raised earlier by a number of Deputies. The funding model work is examining how we can target funding towards goals such as reducing out-of-pocket costs for parents and ensure that childcare professionals are adequately paid, representing the very significant educat…

I will focus on elements that Tusla has undertaken as the child and family agency and set out the work it has done. During the first four weeks following the restrictions, there was a significant reduction of 36% in the number of referrals to Tusla. At that point, Tusla rolled out a significant information campaign across social media and traditional media as well, reminding the public that its child protection services were open, and encouraging referrals of children at risk. Over the past six months, the average …

Tusla identified three core priorities during the lockdown, namely, domestic violence, children in residential care and their ongoing interaction with their parents and children in foster care as well. It focused all its resources in those particular areas. We have had the opportunity to discuss the specific supports provided for domestic violence services to ensure that they had additional staff, that where a staff member was sick due to Covid or for any other reason, their position was not idle, that PPE was prov…

This is a question on the issue of equality. In recent years, Ireland has taken some significant steps towards addressing inequality across the country. The programme for Government commits to building on this progress to ensure that everyone living in Ireland enjoys full equality. Following the transfer last week to my Department of functions formerly in the Department of Justice and Equality, my Department now co-ordinates and oversees a suite of national strategies that aim to address inequality. The strategies …

There is not enough time to talk about the range of issues that fall within the equality brief and the range of challenges. I am incredibly excited to hold this brief. It is an area I am and have been very passionate about throughout all of my life, including prior to my involvement in politics. There is a very detailed section in the programme for Government on equality and all of these areas. The Deputy specifically mentioned Traveller and Roma integration. There are big challenges for both communities in the con…

The Deputy is the third to raise issues with the HIVE system today. Again, I acknowledge there have been problems. I believe some of these problems are specific to the Covid-19 context we are in, but I also acknowledge that the response could have been better. We have to learn from that for the registration scheme next year. The information technology system used to administer childcare schemes, the early years platform, is new. It was designed to meet the current and future needs of administering the various schem…

I thank the Senators for their contributions and their continued engagement on this legislation over the last weeks. When we last spoke in the House, earlier in the week, I noted that this is technical legislation. As was said by speakers earlier, I acknowledge that while the legislation we are looking at is technical, it reflects a long, grim period in our country's history. This legislation touches on one of a range of legacy issues that our country is still struggling to address. Many fall within my Department a…

I thank the Senators for their engagement. As regards the treatment of these records by Tusla, when my Department has engaged with Tusla on this we have engaged with them on a technical level, and given them an indication how the database could be used, and how it will facilitate their existing functions under the existing, as we all accept, insufficient type of information and tracing that we have in this country. As Senators will know and seen in the budget, my Department allocated a significant amount of money t…

No.

I thank all Senators for their contributions. It is justifiable to recognise Senator Boyhan's contributions as he is someone who has experienced some of the matters about which we are talking today and brings that sense of personal experience to this debate. To reassure him, I have sought the advice of the Attorney General at all stages of this process. I would not do otherwise. After our debate on Wednesday, I spent a lot of time reflecting on Senator McDowell's contribution and, particularly, on Senator Boyhan's …

Its terms of reference stated that the records were to be destroyed at its conclusion. That was an issue of significant debate in a previous Oireachtas and there was a Bill on the issue, although it did not pass. The matter remains to be addressed by the Minister for Education and Skills.

I beg Senators' indulgence regarding the details of this. I had a conversation late last night with the Attorney General in which I asked him to start work on it. When my telephone rang very rudely at the start of this debate, it was the Attorney General looking to talk to me. Most of this morning was spent preparing to speak to the Senators today so I do not have the firm details at this stage, but I am happy to make a commitment that, when the draft amendment is ready, I will ensure it is supplied to Senators so …

My apologies. I wish to indicate that I would like to come in soon after the Senator. She may want to hear what I have to say.

When I spoke to the Attorney General yesterday on the previous points we discussed I also indicated I would like him to bring forward a proposal for an amendment in the Dáil which will address the specific issue and see if there is a way of ensuring a complete set of records and the database are included in the archive from day one. I asked the Attorney General to draft an amendment which will provide for that. That is how I am seeking to proceed.

I hear the criticisms of Tusla. From my engagement with the current legal infrastructure for information and tracing, which we know is insufficient, many of the barriers encountered by people seeking information about their birth mother or siblings result from the inadequacies in the existing information and tracing. That is why we need to change that legislation. If there are situations where there is bad practice in Tusla, as its line Minister I am happy to engage with any Senator in that regard, but the core pro…

I will deal with that issue under a later amendment. I am not pursuing an amendment on that point, having engaged with the commission and received an indication of a very extensive index it will provide. I will deal with the issue at a later stage but I am not pursuing such an amendment because the commission has given me an indication that the index it will compile will be a detailed 80-page index setting out the various matters. I think that will address the issues around indexing.