Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The talks on the review and renewal of the confidence and supply agreement are ongoing between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The House and members of the public will know the outcome I have put forward, which is that we should not have an election until the summer of 2020 and we should agree a date for an election in the summer of 2020. I am very keen to get down to talking about the nitty-gritty and detail of what can be achieved for the public by the Government and Oireachtas between now and then in areas such as the economy, tax, jobs, health, housing, education, infrastructure and climate change - everything that we care about.

Given the way Brexit is unfolding in the United Kingdom, it may go on for quite some time and it would be responsible to give Ireland the stability and certainty of having a Government in place until the summer of 2020 so we can get through the entire Brexit period and perhaps most of the transition period. The talks are going on longer than I would like but I respect the fact that Fianna Fáil wants to do a detailed and in-depth review of what is happening in different Departments and I respect its wish that this be done. That is being done. I think eight or nine Departments have been reviewed. While the talks have been ongoing for a long time, they have certainly not gone on as long as the DUP-Sinn Féin on-and-off talks. In fact, I do not think those two parties are talking at the moment. It is always better to talk than not talk when it comes to getting things done for citizens. As Deputy Micheál Martin rightly said, the DUP and Sinn Féin now hold the international record for failing to agree a government and form a coalition.

As a result of that, people in Northern Ireland, Irish and British citizens alike, have been left largely voiceless over Brexit, unlike south of the Border. The number of people on waiting lists for operations and procedures is spiralling. Homelessness in the North is getting worse and people are forced to live on meagre welfare payments and pensions worth half of those in the Republic of Ireland. A large share of the responsibility for that lies with the failure of Sinn Féin to form a government in Northern Ireland.

The Independents in Government are not involved in the confidence and supply talks because it is an agreement between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael but I have given the Independents my commitment that Fine Gael will not sign off on a new confidence and supply agreement, or renewal, without them also being happy with it. Ultimately, any new agreement would fall to the Government, not just Fine Gael, to implement and I could not sign up to something which the Independents, in good faith, did not feel they could deliver on. That is where it stands. The Independents are not involved in the negotiations because Fine Gael has already negotiated a programme for Government with the Independent Alliance and the Independents in government and that runs for five years.

Childcare is a particular priority for Government and it is particularly important, and more important, to families, many of which struggle with the cost of childcare. It is an area in which Government has made much progress in recent years. Everyone is guaranteed two years of free pre-school, early childhood care and education, which I know many parents find extremely valuable. The Government has introduced the universal subsidy which gives a subsidy to any child in childcare between the ages of six months and three years. That is not means tested, which is important because hard-working middle income and middle class parents, who pay a lot of income tax, should also benefit from childcare subsidies and that is why we made sure there was not a means test for that particular subsidy.

There is also the affordable childcare scheme and there will be further improvements to that scheme in 2019. It will be put on a universal basis, merging the existing schemes into one. There will be an increase in the subsidies paid to low income families because they need it most, but it will also be extended to many more middle income families because they need help too. Middle income families, with combined incomes of about €100,000, will receive childcare subsidies from next year and that is only right and appropriate, given that they are the same parents who pay an awful lot of income tax so they should also get things back from the system.

It is absolutely appropriate that the public are informed about all this and I am glad that the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, is making sure that the public is informed of what is available to them in childcare supports. I do not regulate or control that in any way.

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