Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

In advance of the general election, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were content to trumpet commitments in their manifestos to deliver childcare at a cost of €200 per month to parents. The programme for Government will have disappointed those parents, as will the Minister and her inaction over the first 100 days in the lifetime of this Government, when we have seen no action taken to reduce the cost of early years education. The inadequacy of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governance has had very real consequences for ordinary families left to pay what often amounts to a second mortgage. Parents are forced to choose between working themselves or staying at home. The Government is rowing back on the improvement to workers' conditions.

There seems to be little impetus for action when businesses are impacted by the Government's poor administration. A survey earlier this year found that nine out of 10 businesses reported the childcare crisis had impacted their ability to recruit staff. I commend my party colleague and Sinn Féin's spokesperson on children, Deputy Kerrane, for tabling this motion and Together for Public for pressing the Government to finally take meaningful action. The draft terms of reference of the public consultation need to be published. There needs to be real engagement with Together for Public on those terms of reference. We must see the Minister's timeframe for a detailed action plan to deliver on childcare because families and parents simply cannot afford another Minister who sits on his or her hands and fails to deliver on either cost or capacity.

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