Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I hear regularly from constituents who raise issues around affordability and availability of childcare and it is an issue that is becoming more pressing now. When we welcome so many young children to Ireland from the Ukraine, we also have to provide for them. It is very important that we address the affordability issue here. Many more childcare workers tell me of how they want to have an opportunity to stay working and to progress in the sector as valued employees.

In Partnership for the Public Good: A New Funding Model for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, the report of the expert group on a new funding model for early learning care, school-age childcare issues such as core funding, tackling disadvantage, affordability measures, fee management and the role of the State were addressed. What steps will be taken to make childcare more affordable?

People are in contact with me regularly. A lady came to my office the other day who has had her second baby. She told me that she was thinking of giving up work as she cannot afford childcare which, she said, was more expensive than her mortgage. That is a worry.

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