Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion on behalf of the Labour Party. I thank Deputy Kerrane and her Sinn Féin colleagues for bringing it forward. Like many Deputies, I have been contacted by parents struggling to either find or afford a childcare place. I have also spoken to a number of providers in Kildare who are struggling either due to low funding or an inability to get staff. The current system of early years education and care is not working for anyone. It does not work for parents, providers or staff.

Ireland has some of the highest childcare fees in the European Union, with many working families paying a second mortgage in childcare fees. We also have the highest level of private provision of any OECD country. Childcare fees in my county of Kildare far exceed the nationwide average of €790 a month. Parents in Kildare pay an average fee of €850 a month, with the highest fee in the county standing at €1,154. Despite core funding promising to reduce costs, working families continue to see their childcare fees increase. It was a blow to many working families that instead of reducing fees, one of the first actions of the new Government was to approve fee increases of nearly 20% for some childcare providers. The Minister has said that getting to the cap of €200 per month per child is a long journey.

This is simply another row-back by the Government on its election promises and a blow to families who need to know when the long journey of the second mortgage will end.

The Labour Party was the first party to call for childcare fees to be capped at €200, so it is welcome that many other parties followed suit. A commitment contained in the current programme for Government is to reduce fees to €200. Most Scandinavian countries operate this model, with a fee cap and additional reductions based on the number of children and means. It is not a model that fits Ireland exactly but the basic values of equality, affordability and fairness must provide the foundation of Ireland's own public model of childcare. A public model cannot operate on its own; it needs to be backed up by increased family leave entitlements to ensure we address the gender care gap between men and women, promote the involvement of more men in caring duties and support women's labour market participation.

We have to acknowledge that reducing childcare fees will not bring one additional childcare place. We need to address the workforce challenges facing the sector in tandem. Funding streams are now inadequate for many smaller providers to sustain their businesses. The Government needs to put its money where its mouth is and ramp up the investment in the childcare sector. Small to medium sized businesses are struggling to make ends meet. Eleven services in Kildare alone have already closed out of 184. This year, over 30 service providers have withdrawn from core funding. In the previous two years, 140 services withdrew. Clearly, the Government does not have the ambition to match what is required in investing in our early years childcare sector. UNICEF has suggested 1% of GNI, which equates to an investment of €2.7 billion. Any country that is serious about investing in high-quality, affordable early-years education needs to consider a proportion between 1% and 2%. Ireland is way behind, at 0.4%. We have a long way to go.

Staff are leaving in their droves due to low pay, with a survey by SIPTU showing the sector is struggling to retain staff and an average turnover of 25%. The Government recently confirmed an additional €15 million to support providers in meeting the cost of increasing the minimum rates of pay. For 2025, that is €45 million. Despite this, there has been great frustration among unions and educators due to the lack of progress on the new employment regulation order. The sector could be looking at losing €860,000 per week due to continued delays in implementing increased minimum rates of pay. The Minister must confirm what action she is taking to ensure the talks at the joint labour committee do not stall any longer. As the Minister is aware, €207 million in State funding has been paid to the sector since 2022 to support improved pay. However, the Minister has stated EROs do not absorb the available core funding signalled for staff pay and graduate leaders. We need to know what the Department and the Minister will do to address this.

In the Labour Party's vision for a public model, we see educators being brought into line with their colleagues in primary education and integrated fully into the education system. We need to achieve professional wages for our early years educators, with a minimum rate of €15 per hour, and recognise qualifications and experience if we truly want high-quality early years education. The Government will have spent €350,000 on consultancy fees researching a national agency on childcare, but there is nothing to show for this yet.

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund has invested in an equity firm that made a €10.5 million investment in a private for-profit operator, this being another example of the Government speaking out of both sides of its mouth. How can the Government possibly move towards a public model when it is trying to profit from this crisis? State resources should be invested in building a public model of childcare, not in for-profit providers. I ask the Minister to commit in the House tonight to divesting from this equity firm.

The Labour Party's ambitions for a public model of early education and school-age childcare would guarantee equal access and prioritise the opening of new services where there is a shortage of childcare places. In my area, Kildare, a number of purpose-built premises are lying vacant waiting for the State to roll out a public model. These are the areas that the Government must target first. For many private providers, there are areas that are not profitable to go into, particularly rural towns and villages. This is where the State needs to step in. Doing so would provide an equal start for many young children and reduce the cost burden on ordinary working families. A public learning and childcare system would ensure equality for children, affordability for parents and fairness for professionals. The Government needs to set a date for the introduction of a public system and provide a clear roadmap that has vision and ambition. We need to give certainty to those working in the sector and help struggling families to reduce their childcare costs.

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