Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The last decade has seen a big shift in public policy towards childcare in this country. The State now recognises that the first five years are a critical developmental time for young children and has built a range of supports for parents and children so they can give their children the best start in life. As part of those supports, the State now seeks to make early learning and care accessible and affordable. There has been real progress in recent years, including the doubling of investment in early years education, the halving of childcare costs and the huge increase in the number of parents using the national childcare scheme. All those numbers are going in the right direction. The progress is only as good as the political will behind it, however. Much of the sector and many parents are looking at the new programme for Government and asking where that political went.

The new programme for Government makes no commitment to and absolutely no mention of creating a legal right to the two early childhood care and education, ECCE, years. This is despite that commitment being in both of the manifestos of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Where did the commitment go? Did the Independents ask the Government to drop it, did the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform get involved or did the Government just forget all about it? At a time when the loss of childcare professionals from the sector is a key threat to increasing capacity, the programme for Government merely commits to a business-as-usual approach to pay increases for staff.

When it comes to the development of a public model of childcare, a policy change that was absolutely central to the general election debates only four months ago, the programme for Government could not be more vague. There is a promise of an action plan but no timeline and no specific numbers. It is a long way from Fine Gael's commitment to 30,000 public childcare places by the end of 2030.

I am not fully clear what the Taoiseach's own position is on the concept of the public model of childcare. That is at the heart of this. We have made a lot of progress but we have still to take that most important step and recognise that only the State can guarantee access to childcare in areas where private or community services have not been established. A public model of early learning and care is the final step that brings together the various reforms that have been undertaken over the last number of years. It is this which the new programme for Government fails to recognise.

Will the Taoiseach commit to legislating to ensure that every child has a legal right to the two years of the ECCE programme? Does he believe that the work childcare professionals do is as important as that of teachers and that the State needs to pay them in a way that recognises this? Does he agree that a public model of childcare, working alongside private and community providers, is the best way of ensuring that all children and parents have access to affordable and accessible childcare wherever they live in our country?

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