Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In asking a previous question, I told the Taoiseach that the design of the new national childcare scheme is jeopardising early education opportunities for some of the most deprived and vulnerable children in the north inner city. I am sure this situation is mirrored across the State. The Taoiseach responded to me by listing investments made in education and childcare generally in the north inner city. In case he harbours the delusion that there has been deep investment in early education or, in fact, in any education in our inner cities, I will tell him that he is wrong.

There is much more that needs to be done. On the immediate issue, I repeat, up to 80% of children attending specific early learning settings in the inner city are children who are deeply disadvantaged. The Government's new scheme threatens the capacity of those services to survive. I would like to hear a more solid commitment from the Taoiseach than that he will engage with the Minister and the Department because the providers have been doing that for months. I would like a commitment from the Taoiseach that these children, the most disadvantaged children in the community, will not be further disadvantaged and find themselves in a position of having no childcare provider to go to. That is what they are facing into.

See this speech in context