Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Fianna Fail)

Fáilte roimh an Aire. I welcome the Minister and her officials and thank them for taking the time out of their busy schedules to be here before us today. I thank the Minister for her opening statement and for the clarity and conviction she brings to her role as Minister. I commend her and her Department on the breadth of progress under way across children and equality policies. It is clear that at the heart of her work and at the heart of her Department is a sincere focus on dignity, inclusion and opportunity for all, especially the most vulnerable in our society. I thank everyone involved for that.

The disadvantage of being so far down the list of members asking questions is that some of my questions have been touched on by my colleagues. However, I would like to dig a bit deeper into some of them. We spoke previously about the fact that €45 million is ring-fenced in the coming year’s core funding as wages for childcare workers, which is very important. To me, the childcare workers are the engine room of this whole section and have to be looked after. I note the Minister is awaiting updated regulation orders from the independent early years service joint labour committee. Although the Minister has touched on this already, when can we expect the official update? I am concerned as to whether there will be any negative impact on the workers because of this delay in the committee coming back to the Minister.