90. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to confirm the staff retention rates among early years educators for the past five years; the actions being taken to improve staff retention in the sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20975/25]

Sentiment score: 0.15

Will the Minister confirm the staff retention rates among early years educators for the past five years and the actions being taken to improve staff retention in the sector? Will she make a statement on the matter?

Sentiment score: 0.23

I very much appreciate that additional funding is going into this area. It is interesting to see that the majority of services reported having difficulty recruiting staff over the last 12 months, a process that was reported as difficult or very difficult by 95% of managers. The challenges of recruiting and retaining staff are having stark consequences, with 30% of managers reporting that problems recruiting or retaining staff will result in service closure, an increase of 6% over the previous year's survey. The threat of room closures was reported by 42% of managers, an increase of 9% from 2022. There is a challenge there and it is about trying to meet that challenge and the demands out there in the provision of the services. This needs a continued review and planning for the year forward and into 2026. We need to make sure we have a substantial increase in funding over the next 12 months.

Sentiment score: 0.06

I fully agree that a lot of work is being done and a lot of improvements have occurred. The other challenge in early childcare is access to appropriate facilities. We need to work together on access to facilities, not only in the Minister's Department but also across other Government Departments. I have come across a number of areas where there is difficulty in getting access to facilities and therefore the service cannot be provided in particular areas. We need to do a lot more work on that, and especially in new housing areas where developers are slowing up in the provision of new facilities or there is no-one available to come in to provide those facilities. It is not only a staff challenge, it is also a challenge around the provision of the facilities. This will be a more difficult challenge to face due to costs increasing in recent years.

Sentiment score: 0.00