Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The childcare system is simply not fit for purpose. Fees are far too high and wages are too low. The system is not working for parents, for staff or for providers. Rising childcare costs are like a second mortgage for families. They cannot catch a break. People are absolutely broken. It is keeping people from going back to work. In Cork, families are easily paying on average €800 per month per child. Many families are paying over €1,000. That is even before you get to families with two or more children, who are paying well above €1,000. That is crazy money altogether.

I listened to the Taoiseach earlier and to listen to him you would imagine that, first, the cost of living crisis only happened in the last couple of weeks and, second, that it only happens at the petrol pump, although that is a huge issue and an enormous component to this. However, childcare costs are the part of the cost of living crisis as well, as is rent. If you are in the situation where you are renting and you have to pay for childcare, even though many people who are renting cannot realistically afford to have children at the minute, between rent and childcare, two thirds of your income is gone before you do anything else. That is the reality the Minister and his predecessor have failed to confront.

For families trying to find a place in crèche in Cork is like trying to find a needle in haystack. Many childcare facilities are being forced to close due to staff shortages. The Government was warned about this. A few years ago, the Cork Early Years Alliance identified that a number of services would close unless action was taken. Many of the services closed. While not an entire service closed, many of the rooms and places were reduced. That is the reality. Childcare workers are often on little more than minimum wage. It is not sustainable.

Families across the State are sick of limp promises from the Government on this. As my colleagues outlined, a freeze is not going to cut it, because these costs are already completely unsustainable. They are keeping people back from working and putting people through immense hardship. The funding stream announced will not make any real impact on reducing sky-high childcare fees. It will freeze them at unsustainable and unaffordable levels. In the context of a cost of living crisis, where families are already seeing their energy bills, fuel costs, rent and groceries prices soar, the Government plans for childcare are completely out of sync with the reality of what is affordable for families in Cork and across the State. It is not as if the Minister and this Government have not been warned. This issue has been there for years and has been getting worse. It has not been confronted.

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