Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Early learning and childcare is an area that has seen rapid and significant developments and has had a substantial increase in investment in recent years. In particular, we have made good progress in affordability for parents, pay for staff and the inclusion of children with disabilities. However, we need to go further in the coming years. We need to support parents and educators and make provision right across the early learning and childcare sector, with a focus always on ensuring there is a positive experience for children.

The national childcare scheme has increased subsidy rates paid to families, which, along with fee controls and other reforms to the scheme, are delivering much greater affordability for parents. Out-of-pocket costs for some families remain much too high, though. That is why the programme for Government builds on the initiatives we had in recent years. For the first time, the Government is committing to introducing an element of public provision with State-led facilities to add capacity. Taking a more strategic approach to forward planning and the option of public delivery options, there is a much greater scope to influence the types and number of places available and to better align those with families’ needs. Importantly, we are committing to progressively reducing the cost of early learning and childcare to €200 per child over the lifetime of this Government. Officials are examining this ambitious commitment and exploring approaches on how to most effectively achieve this objective.

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