I thank Deputy Daly. My officials and I met the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Helen McEntee, and her officials early in the process to prepare for the transfer of functions to my Department, including those relating to direct provision. We have maintained regular contact on the matter since then. In addition, I have made contact with some officials who will be transferring from the Department of Justice and Equality to my Department for initial discussions on a range of equality matters, direct provisio…

I thank the Deputy. I want to recognise his engagement with me on Cahersiveen. On the very day I became a Minister, he tracked me down and had a word in my ear about it. He was instrumental in helping to get a good outcome there. Colleagues like the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Foley, were engaging with me significantly on the issue as well and we did get a good outcome there. However the Deputy is absolutely right that Cahersiveen is one example of the wider failings of the direct provision process th…

I do not have a specific date but a matter of weeks is the timeframe which has been discussed with my officials. I very much hope that the transfer of functions will have taken place by the end of this month. There is a need for a White Paper because it is an overarching issue and the solutions are across a wide range of issues. The programme for Government does not discuss the accommodation side of direct provision alone. It looks at the entire international protection process and how that might be speeded up, the…

On the housing side of this issue, I have spoken to a number of housing NGOs. As it is not yet within my remit, I have not started engaging with the NGOs representing those within direct provision but I will do so as soon as I get those functions.

Each year a number of early learning and school-age childcare services close for a variety of reasons. Services intending to close must notify Tusla, the childcare regulator, of that fact. The most recent available data for the year to date show that 123 services, as the Deputy noted, have notified that they will not be reopening. A total of 39 new services have also notified Tusla that they will be opening this year. The number of services closing this year to date is slightly lower than the same number last year.…

The Deputy is absolutely right about the need for that element of wider support. When she put down a motion on this in the last term, we had a good discussion about some of the key things that are happening in the Department around workforce planning, looking at building real careers for childcare professionals, as well as the operational model which I brought through Cabinet and in terms of the expert group looking at the overall funding of childcare, how it is funded in other countries and drawing useful comparis…

Like the Deputy herself, I do not initially see how the guidelines would impact on the after-school element more than any other element. They apply generally and I am not sure if it is the rules themselves or a financial concern about staffing to monitor that in and out process. Again, there are financial supports specifically provided in the context of the reopening grants and it is a significant payment. If the Deputy has more specific details I am happy to touch base with her subsequently on that.

Research the Department has undertaken on the Covid-19 pandemic has shown the risk of a particular impact on students from disadvantaged backgrounds and students with special educational needs. This is one of the reasons I have been very committed as part of the Government to the reopening of schools generally. As the Deputy knows, the Tusla Education Support Service, TESS, operates under the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 and has an emphasis on the promotion of school attendance, participation and retention. TESS ha…

In case there is any confusion about redeployment, the idea is that Tusla staff from other areas would be redeployed to support this particular project, particularly in September, to make sure young people come back to school. It is about resources coming in rather than resources going out. On the transfer of functions, we are talking about a number of weeks. I can get back to the Deputy on this. We are looking at a number of weeks with regard to when the TESS function will be moved to the Department of Education a…

My understanding is that in terms of breakfast clubs and the use of school facilities, there is no barrier to doing this so long as public health guidelines are fully followed. I might touch base with the Deputy on this again so I have a completely clear answer for him.

Yes. I did not quite get into too much detail on the sustainability fund in the previous reply, if the Deputy would like me to say a little bit more about it. It might be worthwhile for those listening to hear it.

The Covid-19 sustainability support grant will be available to early learning and childcare services where there is a demonstrated decline in occupancy or a verified increase in costs due to Covid-19 that is not addressed by the significant financial measures already put in place, which we have discussed. I have allocated €2 million for the scheme. This is in addition to resumed funding for the Department’s childcare schemes and the employment wage subsidy scheme, which funds an average of 38% of providers' costs a…

The €2 million is the overall sustainability fund. It is not a ring-fenced Covid element.

Yes.

Crowe was commissioned by my Department to undertake an independent review of the cost of providing quality early learning and care and school-age childcare in Ireland. Planning is under way to launch the report and I intend that this will occur before the end of this month. Crowe's brief included analysing the current costs of providing early learning and care and school-age childcare and the factors that impact on these costs; the delivery of a model of the unit costs of providing early learning and care and scho…

Absolutely. Obviously, I was not in this position when it was commissioned, but I know just from talking to officials in the Department the huge amount of work that has gone into it. The work has been refined and strengthened as it has been undertaken. As I said in reply to a question the Deputy asked earlier, this comes in the context of other very significant research work my Department is undertaking. Sometimes people give out about reports being undertaken etc., and on one hand I can understand there is always …

Absolutely. All the pieces of work the Department is undertaking at the moment are really valuable and will give us that evidence base to design that long-term future. Comparisons are often made with Nordic countries and other European countries where a much more substantial amount of State investment goes into the sector. Again, that is building on things that have been ongoing for decades. We are not starting from scratch, but after ten years that is the only context in which childcare is developing in Ireland. I…

I acknowledge that the Deputy has been engaging with me and I know I am to come back to him with further information. I will continue to do so. Moving on to the wider point, a key objective of all the measures being put in place by my Department is in the context of the national childcare scheme. When it was introduced last year it was agreed to extend the community childcare subvention plus scheme for as long as users preferred to use it over the new national childcare scheme. By retaining it, we provided income s…

I take on board the point about the referral service. To take a step back and provide some context, this is the first year of the NCS. It was getting up and running and then, obviously, we had Covid. There were a lot of plans in place to let these sponsorship organisations know what their role was. There is the Department of Education and Skills, Tusla, the HSE, the Department of Justice and Equality in limited circumstances and local authorities. I have a sense that some of those do not know the extent of their ro…

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 care sector, and welcomes the commitment in the Programme for Government to reform the childcare system to create one that: — brings together the best of community and private childcare provision, using key State supports to ensure affordable, quality outcomes for children and parents; — is focused on children’s rights and providing a trusted developmental envir…