Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This year's budget and last year's budget were designed together. Anyone listening to "Morning Ireland" this morning would have heard the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, set out that there are real challenges but there are ways we can fix it. There are three challenges. The first is the economic sustainability of the providers. This is why last year's budget was important. In it the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, secured €221 million for providers on the understanding that there would not be an increase in fees, as provided from this September, with the transition fund in the meantime.

The second key issue is low pay for workers in the sector. There is a real issue that we do not value enough the caring work in our State. As part of addressing this, the Labour Court has published the first draft employment regulation orders for early years educators and providers of school-aged childcare. I understand the joint labour committee for early years services will meet shortly, with a view to agreeing proposals for one or more employment regulation orders, EROs, to set minimum rates of pay for different roles in the sector.

The third aspect is the high cost for parents and the Deputy is correct. This is where this year's budget connects to the previous budget. By providing in the budget this September improvements to the national childcare scheme subsidies to parents, they will not be gobbled up by the providers who have already got the fund and agreed they will not be able to increase fees. This is strategic thinking fixing a real problem and causing a huge improvement for households that are in real difficulty because of high inflation, caused mainly by international factors. We are delivering it in government two years in, in the same way we are delivering in a range of ways.

I welcome it if Sinn Féin is coming out today with similar proposals to support childcare. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has been at it for the past year and a half, planning strategically and making sure the public money invested is spent well and goes to the parents and, more than anything else, goes to care for our children. We have to look at other areas. We have to look at children raised by parents in the home to make sure they are not disadvantaged with whatever we do in the budget. We must look at ways we leave the choice with parents who are best placed to decide the right way to go. There has been a transformative change in the past two years under the leadership of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, towards recognising that we need to pay people properly in the sector and that the operators were not in a viable economic model and needed support. The €221 million was not insignificant.

The third leg of this multi-annual approach, so that it works effectively, is increasing the subsidy to all parents this year as a way of reducing the cost of living. I am glad if Sinn Féin is looking at something similar or is similarly interested. We are delivering it and doing it in government. We will do so this September and did so last October. We will continue to review it through the Labour Court through improving the pay of workers. This is all real change. There will be a real benefit to parents throughout the country. I commend the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, on what he is doing.

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