Childcare and jury duty
Senator Collins raises the burden jury duty places on early years educators, arguing they should be exempt like primary and post-primary teachers.
I raise an issue related to the childcare sector and early years educators, specifically jury duty. As the Leader knows, primary and post-primary teachers are exempt from jury duty. However, early years educators are not. As we all know, crèches are fairly tight as regards staff. When a staff member in a crèche setting is called for jury duty, the crèche does not have the luxury of having a panel or substitutes. As a result, it is more than likely that a room will have to be shut down and all the parents will have to be notified that their kids cannot go to the crèche that day because the staff member will not be available. While I know juries play a vital role in the justice system, I ask the Leader to contact the relevant Minister requesting that consideration be given to adding early years educators to the exemption list. This is to ensure that when there are calls for juries, rooms in childcare settings would not be closed down to facilitate jury duty. We should show early years educators the same respect that is shown to primary and post-primary teachers receive in this area. These facilities do not have panels or the substitutes to backfill.