I thank all of the Senators for their contributions. As this is a miscellaneous provisions Bill, we are dealing with a number of important matters and one incredibly sensitive matter. I thank all Senators, in terms of the Stardust tragedy and our efforts, albeit belated, as a State to provide justice to those who died and provide justice to their family members, for their contributions. Many Members expressed the wider significant impact that the loss of so many young people had on Irish society at the time. I was …

Core funding is designed to support a range of objectives, including the drawing up of an employment regulation order, ERO, to determine minimum rates of pay for workers as well as supporting career pathways in graduate employment. Of the €221 million core funding budget, approximately two thirds is intended to contribute to improved pay rates across different categories of staff. This portion of the budget cannot be made available without assurances that the funding will be channelled towards achieving this intend…

The ERO is the only game in town. It is the one mechanism available under the existing industrial relations mechanism that will ensure our fantastic childcare professionals receive the substantial additional funding the Government announced in the budget last year through better pay. The only way to guarantee that is through an ERO. No one in the sector, from either the employer or employee sides, has been able to suggest a better mechanism. My focus is on providing the money. The Government has provided the money …

My focus and that of the Department is on supporting the delivery of the ERO and I do not wish to second-guess that process. I genuinely do not know of a way that we can as effectively support better pay for staff without an ERO being in place. That is why all our focus has to be on that mechanism. I welcome the Deputy's support for the ERO. The Deputy is correct. Staff have felt undervalued. When one takes account of what many of them are being paid, one can see that they are undervalued. That is certainly one of …

I thank the Deputy. Since 2016, my Department has funded the access and inclusion model to ensure that children with disabilities can access the early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme. Its goal is to empower preschool providers to deliver an inclusive preschool experience, ensuring that every eligible child can meaningfully participate in the ECCE programme and reap the benefits of high-quality early learning and care. AIM offers tailored and practical supports, some universal and others targeted, base…

Nothing is off the table in regard to broadening AIM. I know how good a programme it is. I have spoken to parents who have experienced the value for their children. I have spoken to services which have seen they have been able to do much more for children. My starting point is to expand access to AIM. I like to do things after the research is completed in order that I can understand what the current situation is. I have acted on the many reports that we have done in childcare so far and I hope to be able to act on …

I can get back to the Deputy with more detail on the process. It started in 2021 so it has been quite a lengthy and detailed process. I imagine the researchers have engaged with providers that have undertaken this work. The real strength of AIM is its flexibility. The DEIS model used in primary and secondary school is "all or nothing" - you get DEIS status or you do not - whereas AIM has graduated levels of supports from one to seven recognising that a situation in different services and indeed different children m…

As set out in A White Paper to End Direct Provision and to Establish a New International Protection Support Service, my Department is currently working on implementing a new model of accommodation and supports for international protection applicants. Under the new model, an applicant for international protection will initially be accommodated in one of six new integration and reception centres. Accommodation in an integration and reception centre will be own-door for families and own-room for single people with spe…

Deputy Cairns is aware of the major pressures on accommodation throughout the country right now. Our Department, like others, sources accommodation where we can. Where we are able to facilitate families in terms of where they have integrated and made connections, we absolutely will seek to do that. Realistically I am not in a position to say I can guarantee that in every situation because there may be areas where we have not been able to secure accommodation. We all know the pressure that is there. We will do our b…

Moving on to the accommodation of Ukrainians, as the Deputy says, we are accommodating 28,000 Ukrainians right now. We are also accommodating 12,000 people in the international protection process. We are accommodating 41,000 people in total right now. This time last year, we were accommodating 7,000 people. It is a substantial increase in a year and that has put real pressure on the system. That means that the delivery of choice that the Deputy spoke about in terms of Ukrainians is simply not possible right now. It…

Since the publication of the White Paper to end direct provision, my Department has placed a significant focus on delivering the new model of accommodation and supports for international protection. This has included the recruitment of a team dedicated to drive the implementation of the new programme; the establishment of governance structures in the form of a programme board and an external advisory committee; the development of an integration programme to support the principle of integration from day one; and the…

We have Ukrainians here under the temporary protection directive, we have international protection applicants and we have refugees accepted under the Irish refugee protection programme, IRPP. Sometimes these all get jumbled in. I will speak to the IRPP programme. We have taken, at this stage, 3,900 Syrians under IRPP 1 and 2. There is an ongoing commitment to receive more Syrians in, as refugees. A group of 80 came in in May of this year and more will come in later on this year. My Department has taken in approxima…

Our response to Ukraine is set out under EU law. Our response to them is set out in the temporary protection directive and we are working under that. In terms of a discriminatory response, I visited Citywest the week before last. The treatment of Ukrainians as they arrive into the country is identical to the treatment of international protection applicants as they arrive into the country.

It is. With all due respect, I was there. I saw what was happening on the ground.

In terms of what happens next, absolutely. However, that is not a determination of the Government. That is a determination of European law. With the greatest respect, it is what is set out in the temporary protection directive and we are operating to fulfil the temporary protection directive. That was a decision of European Union law but we continue to provide a full range of supports to people in the international protection system while we work to end direct provision.

Ensuring financial stability of early learning and childcare services is a priority of Government, as demonstrated by State supports provided to the sector throughout the pandemic that were in excess of €1 billion. A transition fund is now in place to support providers between May and August 2022. This fund is designed to support the financial stability of services in the period between the end of Covid-19 supports and ahead of the introduction of the new core funding scheme this September while ensuring that fees …

We had a useful visit to a number of providers in the Deputy's constituency. We were in King's Island and we saw the benefits of early learning and care for young children, in particular from vulnerable areas. We spoke about the additional supports that new funding like the core funding can provide to those services. We know this year that a number of services have registered with Tusla to say they will be expanding their offering come this September. That is important because we want core funding to be in a positi…

The ECCE programme remains fundamental to our delivery of early learning and care. That is emphasised by the fact that we are doing an evaluation now. One outcome of that will be to put it on a statutory basis. We want to continue to support our ECCE-only services. We have announced the first year of the core funding package. We recognise that inflation is an issue. When I announced the package on budget day, it was €207 million. It is now €221 million. We increased the overall package of funding to reflect inflati…

Significant investment is being allocated by the Government to support families, including one-parent families, with the costs of early learning and childcare. Under the ECCE scheme, all children are supported to access up to two years of preschool education without cost, and 95% of eligible children are availing of this programme. Moreover, the NCS is supporting thousands of families to offset their early learning and childcare costs. We undertook a review of the NCS, the results of which were published late last …

On the specific issue of childcare, which is directly within my control, we have demonstrated through the research that the NCS is delivering for one-parent families. Since the report was compiled, we removed the deduction of wrap-around care for children whose parents are not in work or further education. That will benefit approximately 5,000 young children, including some of those most at risk of poverty. It is a significant innovation, which we were able to bring in early, in May this year. As I have said before…