Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and her Department team. I look forward to working with her. Core funding is working for many parents and providers but the nature of our work is to focus on those it is not working for. While I know it was before the Minister's time and a different Minister was in charge, when the adjustments were brought in, was the Department fully aware of the impact this was going to have on subsidies for parents? I am talking about parents on universal and enhanced subsidies.

On universal subsidies, last September, fees were set to be cut by an average of 25%, bringing overall subsidies available up to 50% of the bill for childcare. That is what was communicated to parents. That was in September but some parents lost some or all of that increase when fee adjustments were approved two months later, in December. Has there been any discussion about further increases to subsidies for parents who lost some or all of what I will call the "September lift" in universal subsidies? I will illustrate the scale of this issue. In Fingal, there were 95 applications for fee adjustments across our 264 services that are in the core funding system. By February, 63 requests had been approved. There will be more now.

I will move onto the enhanced subsidies, which are based on means tests. When the fee adjustment process was outlined, parents were assured that any increases would not go beyond the September subsidy lift of €33 a week but there are parents who have been left out of pocket because of fee adjustments. That has to be fixed because these are mainly the parents and families who need this the most. Parents who were on enhanced or targeted subsidies did not get that increase or lift of up to €33 in the first place so, when the fee adjustments kicked in, they were left out of pocket.

That is my read of the situation. ECCE hours were also not included in the increase so those 15 hours per week were impacted by the increases. Was the Department aware of this? Is it aware of the number of families out of pocket? What is the plan to deal with that? I do not have sight of how big an issue this is but one provider in Dublin West was granted fee adjustments across 11 services. It was told the fee increase would not surpass the increase in the affordable childcare scheme and families would not be out of pocket but 33% of those families were impacted.

A question I have asked frequently in the Dáil Chamber and in parliamentary questions is about the national development plan. There was €45 million in the plan over the past two years for childcare infrastructure. In education in 2025 there is a capital budget of €1.5 billion. We have an opportunity for State-led provision and facilities. What engagements has the Minister had with the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation on the national development plan? This is our opportunity to put our money where our mouth is in delivering childcare capacity.