The Minister for Children has announced that the resumption of the Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme will be delayed until 11 January, when schools are due to reopen.
Speaking to RTÉ News, Minister for Children Roderic O'Gorman said: "As part of the national effort to reduce the number of social contacts over the next number of days, we've asked childcare providers to defer the reopening of the ECCE scheme until 11 January, so we will open on 11 January aligning with primary and secondary schools.
"As regards other types of childcare, we’ve asked childcare providers to open this week but for priority groups, so those are the children of essential workers and also children from vulnerable groups.
"And we’ll be providing guidance to childcare providers as regards who are those priority groups and childcare providers will be engaging with parents over the next number of days."
The return of the ECCE scheme will be delayed until 11 January, when schools are due to reopen, but childcare providers have been asked to open next week for priority groups, Minister for Children Roderic O'Gorman has said | https://t.co/R4sdK5x5UP pic.twitter.com/K8EYuNIGsu
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) January 1, 2021
Early learning and childcare services are deemed essential under the Level 5 restrictions in place under the Living with Covid plan.
However, following consultations with the sector, Mr O'Gorman announced that the resumption of the ECCE pre-school programme will be postponed.
The scheme, which is delivered by over 4,000 services nationwide, provides two years of State-funded pre-school for all children in the eligible age cohort, for three hours a day during school term.
Over 100,000 children are currently enrolled on this programme.
In a statement, the department said that "On 31 December, Minister O'Gorman met with the Early Learning and Childcare Covid-19 Advisory Group to discuss this matter.
"Representatives from the Advisory Group shared their concerns about the full resumption of early learning and childcare from early January. While accepting the need to maintain early learning and childcare for priority groups, the Advisory Group asked that the pre-school programme (ECCE) would be aligned with the reopening of schools on 11 January."
The statement added that by postponing the return of these children to the pre-school programme, social mixing will be reduced, which will help to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the post-Christmas period.
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth will still provide funding to providers for the pre-school programme for the week of 4-8 January.
The Federation of Early Childhood Providers told RTÉ that every childcare facility will make its own decision about whether to reopen on 4 January.
Chair of the group, Elaine Dunne, said Minister O'Gorman needs to provide more detailed information about essential workers.
"What is an essential worker? That is what my members want to know," she said. "If we are being asked to open for essential workers, that could mean everyone.
"We want the minister to clarify if he meant frontline workers because we know who they are and we will not let them down.
"For example, I know of several crèches near hospitals that are open already so frontline staff can go to work."
The Federation of Early Childhood Providers represents 1,700 creches and pre-school childcare centres.
Ms Dunne said every service will carry out its own risk assessment before reopening.
"For example, crèches in areas with high infection rates may decide it’s too dangerous to operate.
"Others will not have enough staff to reopen on 4 January, because the schools are staying shut until 11 January so some employees will have no childcare. Or staff may have Covid or be close contacts of positive cases.
"Our priority is to keep people safe. Health and wellbeing are paramount."
She said the Department of Children had requested childcare providers to "make up the days" if they delayed reopening until 11 January.
"It’s impossible, we have no spare space on the calendar. I also note that schools are not being asked to make up lost days."
Ms Dunne said she hoped to reopen her Treehouse Montessori in Kilternan, Dublin on 11 January but it will depend on health and safety.
"Looking at the huge increase in transmission, we just do not know what will happen in the next week or so."
Childhood Services Ireland (CSI), the Ibec group that represents the childcare providers sector in Ireland, said it welcomed today's announcement.
CSI Director Darragh Whelan said: "Early years providers play a crucial role in managing this public health crisis by providing essential services to frontline workers and essential workers.
"However, in doing so, early years providers operate with an inevitable amount of risk. It is of the utmost importance that the health and safety of children and staff are an absolute priority.
"As we stated in our letter to the Minister, the operation of an early years’ service should always be in line with public health guidance and regulations.
"We welcome the decision from Government this evening to postpone the reopening of pre-school programme until 11 January. The announcement that funding for the pre-school programme will be provided to early years providers for these closure times is also welcomed," he added.
