There is and, I think, will always remain a key place for the community model in the delivery of early-years services, and the social enterprise model is part of that. We have spent much of the morning discussing the issue of capacity. As to where there are shortages of capacity, I come to the following view now, at the end of four years in this role. We recognise that sometimes a private provider does not see the attractiveness of an area for a particular reason. Should we be relying on a social enterprise model, …

In response to Deputy Kerrane, I am absolutely happy to look at that proposal. She might make sure it gets to me herself. I cannot commit here and now to making the payment but I will definitely look at it. In response to Deputy Sherlock, I do not think I have been very cautious. I have set out, from my party's point of view, a view of a step towards legislating for ECCE as a legal right and delivering that through State, public provision. I think I have been clear on that. I-----

I thank the Deputy for informing me of my role; I appreciate his advice.

The Deputy has taken Deputy Kerrane's time now. I will reply to his question.

I would argue that there is already strong alignment in respect of the curriculum, the aistear and síolta curriculums, which flows through the ECCE process and into junior infants and senior infants. There is already strong integration in respect of the curriculum approach. I think where we agree is on the level of State intervention, which is complete in respect of junior infants but incomplete in respect of the ECCE process. I think we will all have the opportunity to talk more about that in the weeks ahead.

We were able to announce a 25% increase in funding for early years in my Department yesterday, a very significant increase in funding. What that will do in 2025 I draw into three distinct areas. As the Deputy knows, in 2024, we were able to achieve a second very significant cut in fees for parents through the national childcare scheme and, because of that, more parents are signing up to the NCS and more children are getting the benefit of that cut in fees. The primary goal in 2025 is to ensure there is funding for …

Living in primarily urban constituencies, the Deputy and I have to recognise capacity challenges are everywhere. Deputies Kerrane and Sherlock have highlighted them. All over the country there are capacity challenges. Part of it is that, because we have made it more affordable, more parents are taking it up with both parents going to work and they want their kids to enjoy the benefit of early learning and care. These are all positives. I have set out the steps we will be taking this year and next, particularly in r…

The Deputy is right that we need to pay proper wages and that is why I announced that allocation yesterday for pay. That will only flow to providers if there is an agreement to increase pay. We need to go further; I do not think that is the end of the pay discussion by any means. Deputy Murnane O'Connor's point on the need for a place is similar to what Deputy Farrell spoke about and what we have spent most of the morning talking about. Next year, there is €25 million for capital funding. That can be drawn down by …

I am a strong supporter of the work of family resource centres. In recent weeks, I have visited the centre in my own community in Mountview, as well as centres in Waterford, Kilkenny, Limerick and Clare, and have seen the amazing work they do. I am pleased to say that in the budget announced yesterday I secured an additional €800,000 for the family resource centre programme. That will allow five new family resource centres to be opened around the country next year. That allocation is in addition to the funding equa…

The Deputy has flagged the needs of Youghal with me on a number of occasions. Our Department, working with Tusla, will set out an application process based on metrics. It will look at the need in a particular area, the demographics that are served and detailed CSO-type information. From my constituency and other areas, I know the significant benefits family resource centres can bring to a particular area and the additional support they bring to children and families in terms of early years and therapy services. Las…

On the latter point, what I always say is that if a family resource centre is in difficulty, the staff should talk to their local Tusla point of contact. Tusla sees the family resource centres as very much the front line of its public engagement and we want to support them. There is no specific hardship fund but Tusla will usually work to find a solution for family resource centre, if necessary. I will urge my Department to work with Tusla to make provision for the application process as quickly as possible. We hav…

I thank the Deputy for his engagement with me on this issue. Other Deputies and Ministers in the constituency have been on to me as well. My Department made a decision to end its contract for accommodation of Ukrainians in this particular property in accordance with contractual terms. My officials have been in direct contact with this provider and have advised that the provider is free to continue providing accommodation to the Ukrainians living there on a private basis if it wishes to do so. The Ukrainians living …

I advise each of those families to contact the Ukrainian unit in my Department and indicate that they wish to stay in this location and will look to have a private arrangement with the provider and we will note that. Nobody will be forcibly moved if that is the approach they wish to take. If they wish to take up the offer of alternative accommodation with my Department, they can still do that as well. We will note specifically that if the private arrangement falls through for any reason, they will be able to rejoin…

We are not looking to impose a looming deadline if these families are looking to make a private arrangement in this location. I hope I have addressed this location but we can step back. We contracted a significant volume of accommodation around the country to meet the emergency needs of Ukrainians. Approximately 67,000 Ukrainians lived in State-owned accommodation at one stage. This has decreased very significantly. We are going to have to consolidate that range of accommodation where there are contractual issues b…

Absolutely. I am trying to get the balance right between the lived experience referred to by the Deputy-----

Over the past six months, my Department has been focused on progressing the new accommodation strategy I announced in March 2024 with the prioritisation of particular elements of its multistrand approach. Extensive engagement has taken place to identify and negotiate the use of State-owned sites, initially for emergency and tented accommodation and then for longer term solutions. To date, five sites have been licensed with the Department, including Crooksling, River Lodge in Wicklow, Heatherside, Thornton Hall and …

There is one other piece of context worth noting and that is the war in Ukraine. Since February 2022, in addition to the work we had been doing to deal with the needs of international protection applicants, my Department has had to deal with the needs of up to 100,000 Ukrainians and a very significant increase in the number of international applications. This is just for context which I know the Deputy will understand. At present, there are 32,000 people in the international protection system, of which I believe 5,…

To respond to Deputy Connolly, the process is to provide a core of 13,000 State-owned beds between now and the end of 2028. That is what is set out in the comprehensive accommodation policy and that will be done through building on State land and purchasing sites. That will bring us to that capacity. I have set out the work we are doing on State land. Part of that State land is the Thornton Hall site. The timeline for the first 40 tents to be on site is mid October. Deadlines have been delayed but the Deputy will k…

The introduction of core funding in 2022 brought a significant increase in investment for the sector. A sum of €259 million in funding was paid directly into services in year one of the scheme, of which €210.8 million was entirely new funding. This funding, which increased by 11% to €287 million in year two, increased again by 15% in year three to €331 million. In the first programme year, a total of 11 services withdrew from the scheme but remained open. In the second programme year, a total of 16 services withdre…

The core funding model has been tweaked quite significantly between years one and three. In year one, funding was allocated according to the number of hours and the number of children that a service had but we recognised after year one that smaller services were disadvantaged by that. In year two, we brought in two changes. We brought in a minimum floor of core funding below which no service would go, including even very small services. We also brought in a sessional-only rate for services that do ECCE only so they…