Reaction from Early Childhood Ireland to report & recommendations on the Working Conditions of the Early Years Education and Care sector from the Joint Committee on Children & Youth Affairs

Commenting from Leinster House today Frances Byrne, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Early Childhood Ireland said:

“If implemented, these recommendations would be transformative and help Ireland to deliver high quality and affordable early education and care to our youngest and most important citizens.

“In parallel, we fully acknowledge the difference this would make to educators who are the essential deliverers of quality education to children.  This issue of working conditions and staffing is a key challenge facing the early years sector in Ireland and it impacts on both quality and sustainability.

“Regarding the specific recommendation to ‘Reduce worker/child ratios from 1:11 to 1:9’, we agree as stated in the report that this would assist in early identification of problems and pay off in long run for the State, for families and for children and we welcome this.  In fact, many Early Childhood Ireland members report that they already operate a ratio of 1 to 8.

“The implementation of this and other recommendations would cost money but this is inevitable as Ireland is about half-way behind the OECD recommended investment of 1% of GDP.

“As the leading early years organisation in Ireland, Early Childhood Ireland very much welcomes this Joint Oireachtas Committee Report and its timing is important, coming in time for the October budget negotiations.  We hope to see substantial progress on its recommendations in Budget 2018.  We wish to also congratulate Kathleen Funchion TD as the rapporteur of this Report.”