Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies and Senators for their support throughout the passage of the Childcare Support Bill. It is a very historic Bill for all sorts of reasons. I am particularly grateful for the engagement of the Deputies present and that of the colleagues they are representing and for their enthusiasm and co-operation. Both Houses have approached this important legislation in that way. The amendments brought forward and made both in the Dáil and in the Seanad have undoubtedly strengthened the Bill. I also thank the officials in my own Department - and I am delighted to hear everyone else doing so as well - and the Office of the Attorney General for a lot of substantive work on this Bill. As I have stated before, affordable, quality childcare can generate many vital and long-lasting benefits for children, women, families, the economy and for society at large. In order to ensure access to quality childcare we have to make childcare more affordable. The Bill provides the legal basis for doing just that.

In establishing the affordable childcare scheme, the Bill will create a platform that embodies the principle of progressive universalism, with both universal and targeted elements and with strong governance, a focus on quality and the ability to flex and expand to allow more children and families to benefit from greater State investment - public investment - in childcare in the years ahead. In short, it is essential for my pledge to transform our childcare system from one of the most expensive in the world to one of the best. We cannot make that step change without the Bill.

The affordable childcare scheme is only the beginning of the journey. From this very robust starting point, we will seek to grow and develop our funding model for early years care and education. We have identified some of the ways in which we are considering doing that in the early years strategy to tackle disadvantage, to recognise that high-quality services are dependent on a valued workforce whose working conditions support retention and, through all of this, to invest in the future of our children and families.

This is a great day for early years provision in Ireland. The Bill represents a milestone on the journey towards the childcare system we want to see. As I already indicated, it will be complemented by and coupled with the publishing of the early years strategy, which refers to many of the initiatives that the Deputies in their concluding remarks have said are outstanding. We now have a legislative basis for a system which ensures that all families have access to high-quality preschool and school-age childcare, a system that will work with families to give children a great start in life, and a system in which all families who need childcare can afford it.

I commend the Bill to the House.

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