Mattie McGrath confronts ministers on disability and childcare crisis

I want to congratulate you. I wish you well. I want to ask the Ministers what are the steps you are taking to deal with lack of disability services in South Tipperary, the number of vacancies within the C&T teams, four and five, the number of children waiting for occupational therapy, speech therapy and psychological services within the C&T teams, and whether those waiting services can access services privately and then be reimbursed. Please, I hope to get some good news, but this system is badly broken. That is not 122. Is that an additional question on to 122 specifically around child care facilities and the unable to attract and retain staff, and whether child care facilities are struggling to retain staff at risk of closure and all that? Yes, I have two questions. Sorry, I apologise if I can introduce the first one again. So, it is the fact that child care is, and I was in the beginning setting up one, and Ian Rikoshtar and they were back, and we have a huge problem retaining staff around the whole early years, and we are mostly at the seams of children in places, but staff are moving on, progression is a good thing, but we cannot get replacements, and it is a huge issue that the Ministers might address please. Thank you very much, Deputy. I do want to acknowledge that many early learning and care and school-age child care services report staffing challenges, as you have outlined, in relation to recruitment and retention. In general, these staffing pressures in the sector are caused not by insufficient supply of qualified personnel, but by high levels of staff turnover. The most recent published data from the annual early years sector profile survey shows staff turnover for the sector is at 24.5 per cent, however, it is estimated at approximately one-third of staff leaving the services are doing so to move to another service. Notwithstanding this, the data from that survey also shows that the workforce in the sector continues to grow, increasing in the past 12 months alone by 8 per cent. Pay is one of the number of issues impacting the staffing levels, as the State is not the employer, however, of staff in the sector. Neither I nor the Department can set wage levels or determine working conditions. There is, however, a formal mechanism established in the Independent Early Years Joint Labour Committee, where employer and employee representatives can negotiate terms and conditions of employment, including minimum pay rates for different roles in the sector. Outcomes from the Joint Labour Committee process are supported by the Government through the core funding scheme, and the allocation for the 24-25 year of core funding is £331 million. It is an unprecedented level of State intervention. In Budget 25, then, an additional £15 million was specifically secured to support employers to meet the costs of further increases to the minimum rates of pay. This allocation, which is conditional on updated employment regulation orders being negotiated by the Joint Labour Committee, translate into an additional €45 million for the programme year 25-26, and that is specifically dedicated to pay in the sector. The Prime Minister, yes, but we need the voluntary sector here. This is a voluntary question. I am talking about Newcastle, I salute the present Board there, working tirelessly, and indeed, Helen Nicrae, who set it up. It was our dream. And also, we need to support those committees, because they are voluntary boards. You remove them, or you start them off with bureaucracy. And it's the same as the Section 39 workers. It's fine to say that you have no responsibility for the wages. They need to be properly resourced and properly funded. Early years are so vital for the children, and this is and it's through fun and sport, and it's all my children are most of wintered myself, and it's busting at the seams. Staff might go into other services, but still they go into different areas as well. They're well qualified. It's hard to retain them, especially when they're not, the funding isn't put into. Support these voluntary groups, and there are hundreds of them, thousands around the country, these groups, kill off the spirit of enthusiasm and entrepreneurship for volunteers to get nothing out of it, only love of community and love of education. It's a pity. So we need to support them whatever which way we can. Thanks Deputy. Minister. Thanks very much Deputy. And I want to be very, very clear about the state intervention here. And at the outset though, I want to acknowledge the excellent work of those who provide the voluntary facilities as you've referenced in your own constituency, and right throughout the country. But I do want to be very clear about the state intervention here. Over the last three years, just short of 900 million euro is being provided through core funding by the state, unprecedented, never done before. It is an unparalleled resource of funding going into these services. This past year alone, it's a level of 331 million, as I've said. And in addition to that, there are other interventions by the state, the building blocks extension program, 25 million euro availability to providers where they can apply to to provide for extensions or whatever. And indeed, as I've already referenced, a specific 45 million euro additional being provided to support employers meet the costs of wage increases. Again, unprecedented intervention by the state. So in total into the sector that you've referenced, 1.37 billion euro is being invested, never before done by the state. It's quite staggering. That sounds great. And it's even, our scale gives me probably even sound better. But I just want to salute the staff and the management and the teams that are there. But there's the regulations are huge for the baby room and the early years. Like the staff ratios are huge compared to, you can have, go up to national school, then one teacher with 32 children. And there's not a level playing field. So there is unprecedented funding. But trickling down to the likes of Nina and the likes of, of, of, of, of, um, and many other, um, through English play schools and English, um, childcare facilities, which is the majority of them, the upper star role, but when they need the supports, the voluntary boards, if they're going to be labelled with these issues and being extra that they're not paying this way, that ways, they're doing the level best and they're giving an excellent tuition, excellent grounding to these Dine Oge and, you know, from the cradle Italy and they need to be supported. So it's fine to quote out figures, but reality on the ground, real politics is a difficult story. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The flat rate for services registered on the early years register, a session only, which the preschool service offering a programme for total of not more than three and a half hours, increased from 4,000 euro and 75 to 5,000 euro. This will strengthen supports the session only services who typically operate for shorter hours per week and fewer weeks per year. The minimum base rate allocation increased from 8,150 to 14,000 euro. This is the minimum amount of funding a centre-based service will receive through the base rate and ensures a minimum guaranteed income for services. The maximum base rate allocation decreased from 600,000 to 500,000. Again, Deputy, I absolutely understand where your heart is because the provision of these services is so integral to, I suppose, the life cycle within a community. So be under no illusion, Deputy, we are absolutely committed and we're doing it by making the money available, by making the provision available and we will do all that is needed going forward as well. I absolutely accept your bona fides, Deputy.