Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for highlighting the issues to do with the cost and accessibility of childcare and the need to ensure early childhood educators have a decent salary scale. We also need to ensure the small to medium-sized childcare services run by more than 4,000 women across the country are sustainable in the medium to long term. That is not happening. The Minister made a good start in last year's budget, which I was happy to see, but there are still massive challenges around cost, accessibility and recruitment and retention of staff.

Last week, thousands of childcare providers and their staff sent a strong message outside Leinster House that a significant number of small to medium-sized providers are currently operating on a barely break-even basis. Some are closing certain parts of their services as they scramble to keep their doors open. They are in crisis and the Minister knows it. However, he rushed out a press release on the day the childcare providers were outside Leinster House saying closures were at a five-year low, with 46 net closures in the first six months, January to June, of 2023. It was as if 46 net closures of childcare services in six months is something to boast it. The Minister is well aware that even in his own constituency, childcare facilities are closing and a substantial number of them are not informing Tusla because they are not relinquishing their licence. They are not included in his figure of 46 net closures. That number tells us there is a crisis in childcare provision. While we may get the likes of Giraffe Childcare and other large providers opening some new services in cities and large towns, we are losing the small to medium-sized, independent providers in the smaller towns and rural areas, including in my constituency. The Minister really needs to listen to those providers.

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