Dáil debates

Thursday, 7 October 2021

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions

Childcare Services

11:00 am

Photo of Roderic O'GormanRoderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

11 o’clock

The Deputy is right in saying we need to invest more in childcare. We are among the lowest in Europe and in OECD countries, and we need to invest more. We have only been investing for ten years, which is an embarrassment to Governments going back over the generations. We also need to manage how we invest that additional money. We do not want to put significant investment into the NCS for that to get eaten up by increases in fees across all services. These services are trying bring in additional income so they can pay their staff a living wage. All these elements are linked and it is important that increased public investment is linked with increased public management. We need to bring together the two elements of increased investment with increased public management a significant way over successive budgets.

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