Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The childcare sector, like every other sector, is looking at increasing costs right across the board. The cap that is in place for some of them is going to be inoperable because of the dramatic rise in costs. The Minister needs to look at that issue specifically.

He also needs to look at the broader issue of affordability. Even in a county like my own, a rural county constituency of Roscommon and east Galway, we have very significant problems on the availability now of childcare because many providers are pulling out. They just cannot make ends meet and cannot get staff because of the pay rates that are in the sector at present.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a sector where the people who are packing the baby wipes on to the shelves of the supermarkets are being paid more than the staff who are minding the children and using those very baby wipes in our childcare facilities across the country. That needs to be addressed urgently.

See this speech in context