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

The Government provided huge support to the childcare sector during the crisis through a range of funding mechanisms, particularly through the availability of the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS. That supported the amazing work done by childcare providers in staying open for the most vulnerable children and children of essential workers, even during some of the toughest times of the crisis. It is also demonstrated by the fact that, in 2021, we had the lowest number of closures in the sector for a significant number of years. The Government is now bringing forward a major core-funding scheme of €221 million, an investment which we have never seen in the sector, that will target supporting the capacity of services across all parts of the sector. It will deliver the much-needed increase in the pay of the workers who did so much during and before the pandemic.

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