Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. It would be good if we could be updated, particularly on budget policy because we are in the middle of the budget process now in the sense that Departments are negotiating with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on whatever comes in October.

Is the Minister looking for any major initiatives other than the existing ones in this budget process? If there are how will she ensure that it will not make it difficult for parents who want to stay at home in terms of creating an environment where increasingly the incentives promote a different approach? It is not that people are pitting one parent against the other, far from it. Every family and parent needs support in their own circumstances but when we have a system that disproportionately favours one choice over another there is a concern that it makes it difficult to take that choice. Can the Minister give any indication within the budget process, separate to the early years strategy, whether she expects to introduce measures in this year's budget and if so can she give some outline as to what those new additional measures might be?

See this speech in context