295. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total estimated cost of converting early years educators, lead educators, deputy managers and managers to public sector employees. [43757/24]

302. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total cost based on the average salary in the sector, per category, of those working in ELC and SAC, of converting these employees to public servants. [43764/24]

303. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total cost based on the average pay, per category, of those delivering the early childhood care and education programme, of converting these employees to public servants. [43765/24]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 295, 302 and 303 together.

As the State does not employ staff in ELC and SAC services, neither I nor the Department can set wage levels or determine working conditions for staff in the sector.

However, there is now, through the independent Joint Labour Committee (JLC) process, a formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate terms and conditions of employment including minimum pay rates for different roles in ELC and SAC services.

Outputs from the JLC process has seen two increases in minimum rates of pay for roles in the sector and positively impacting over 70% and 50% of the workforce respectively.

Based on 2024 data supplied by Partner Services taking part in the Core Funding scheme and extrapolated to represent all services in the sector, the estimated employer costs for staff working in services (excluding ancillary staff) is approximately €1.023 billion. This cost includes Public Sector costs such as PRSI and Pension and is the estimated cost of assuming the current wage bill for the sector.

Its is not possible to provide the staff cost associated with a particular programme, such as ECCE, as many of the staff working in the sector work across programmes and age groups.

In relation to the estimates above, the following should be noted:

• The cost estimates are based on staff who had an hourly wage recorded in service providers’ submissions for Core Funding, but the Core Funding data has been extrapolated to provide an estimate for all staff working in the sector.

• Cost estimates are based on the most recent data available to the Department, which was provided by service providers in May 2024, this data was provided prior to the new EROs for Early Years Services came into force on June 24th.

• Calculations are based on wage-data available at a point in time. Some services may have increased wages more recently, which would reduce the cost to services of moving from current wage-rates to the proposed wage rates in the question.

• The cost estimates only relate to staff and managers covered by the current EROs, i.e. the estimates exclude the cost of ancillary staff.

• The figure does not take into account the income currently received by those working in the sector who are self-employed and who derive their income from profits rather than wages, nor does it include the cost of Public sector terns and conditions in relation to holiday pay or sick leave due to the complexities of mapping such conditions.