Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There have been many excellent advances in the provision of childcare services in the country under the current Government, but there is one glaring omission, and that is in the area of early childhood care and education, ECCE, services. When the scheme was first introduced in 2010, the capitation rate introduced was €64.50 per child. If that had kept pace with inflation, it would now stand at €76, but it does not. It stands at €69. That is putting incredible pressure on those services that provide ECCE services alone, and there are hundreds of them across the country. Unfortunately, however, 80 of them have closed already this year because they are ECCE-only providers and do not have the opportunity of cross-subsidising the ECCE service from the other services that many other larger providers provide. I ask the Taoiseach and the Minister to look at this again. It urgently needs to be reassessed. The very viability of ECCE-only services is under threat.

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