Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister's response and I do not question his motivation on better pay for staff involved in the sector and in making childcare affordable and accessible for parents. We have to come back to the facts of the matter. We had hundreds of people protesting outside Leinster House last week. Many of these operators were being sustained on the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, which has been removed, and they are finding it difficult to retain staff without that support. As well as that, the Minister mentioned the fact that core funding will lead to an increase in funding for the vast majority of service providers.

The Minister says many of these providers, the 1% and those outside that 1%, will not be any worse off, but these same staff, operators and business owners protested in February 2020. At that point they were already unhappy with the status quo. Why would they all now suddenly be happy with it? They still believe this core funding model is not fit for purpose and it will not lead to the increases that would be appropriate to keep their businesses open.

There is a final, incredibly important point. As part of core funding there is a sustainability fund of approximately €20 million, if I am correct. That is in place to kick in if businesses are having difficulty remaining open and viable. With all due respect, why would there be a sustainability fund if we are not concerned about the viability of operators? That is an important point. All I ask is that we look again at the figure of €69. The operators are seeking €100. Surely there is a middle ground in between in the €221 million budget whereby we can keep everybody happy and keep the smaller operators in rural areas open to ensure we do not have a gap in services.

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