Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As far as I understand it, the deal for this year is that the Government will provide additional funding to childcare and early education providers. There are pay increases for the professionals who work in that area. In return, fees are supposed to be frozen for this year. Not everyone has signed up to that, but I understand the vast majority have. If there are instances of fees being increased, that is a problem and I am alarmed to hear it. If the Deputy can provide me or the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, with some more information, we would be interested to see it. There are providers that did not sign up to the deal but most did. In my view, it would be a breach if they took the extra money and their staff got the increase, but parents then also had to pay a fee increase because that was not the deal.

See this speech in context