Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)

I welcome this opportunity to discuss the important issue of early learning and childcare. It is clear from the discussion so far that we all recognise the importance of early learning and childcare for children and their families as well as for society and the wider economy.

In her opening statement the Minister, Deputy Foley, described the constituent parts of Together for Better - the Government's funding model for early learning and childcare, which has an allocation of €1.25 billion in 2025 alone. She also summarised how this funding model has brought significant benefits to children and their families, to educators and practitioners as well as to providers since it was first introduced in September 2022.

Among the achievements since then are the high participation rates in core funding among services, with 92% of providers participating in year 3 of the scheme and a higher number of providers in absolute terms when compared with previous years; a fee freeze in place in the majority of services; a 36% increase in the number of services offering the national childcare scheme; a 32% increase in the number of children supported to access that scheme to sponsorship arrangements and a 230% increase in the number of children more broadly who benefit from this scheme; extended support for graduate-led provision outside the ECCE programme; and greater stability and sustainability in the sector, with a minimum core funding allocation of €14,000 now in place.

There is greater operational and financial transparency in the use of public funding. Importantly, two consecutive rounds of employment regulation orders have resulted in improved pay for an estimated 70% of those affected, and for 50% of those working in the sector. New negotiations involving the joint labour committee are at an advanced stage, with further improvements in pay expected later this year through updated employment regulation orders. These negotiations are being supported by €45 million in additional State funding that has been ring-fenced for this purpose.

All of our available data point to an expanding sector. For example, data from the early years sector profile survey show that between 2022 and 2024, the estimated number of enrolments in services rose by 19%. Core funding application data shows that between year 1 and year 3 of the scheme, capacity in the sector increased by 15%, with analysis showing that increased capacity was of the type that is in highest demand relative to supply. Data from Tusla on service closures and new service registrations showed a net increase of 226 in the overall number of services in 2024 and the lowest number of service closures in the past six years. There has also been international recognition of our efforts, with the European Commission recently endorsing the approach of Government and welcoming the substantial progress that we have made.

While noting these strong indicators of progress, the Government has not shied away from the challenges that continue to persist in this sector, including high out-of-pocket costs for parents, low pay and working conditions for educators and practitioners and a lack of supply of places in certain areas and for certain cohorts. In the new programme for Government, we have set out a pathway to address these challenges.

In addition to planned reforms to the funding model and increases in the levels of supply referred to by the Minister, Deputy Foley, there is a wider and ambitious reform agenda under way in the area of early learning and childcare through implementation of a range of other policies and programmes, which also deserve special mention. Work is under way to develop a new implementation plan for the First 5 strategy. Work is under way to implement phase 2 of the National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028. Work is under way to implement recommendations in Partnership for the Public Good, the report of the expert group for a new funding model. Work is under way to implement Nurturing Skills, the workforce plan for the sector for the period 2021 to 2028, with commitments to develop career pathways, promote careers in the sector and support staff recruitment, complementing recent achievements and future plans to improve pay and conditions of employment in the sector.

Work is also under way to finalise an action plan for administrative and regulatory simplification following detailed engagement with the sector last year and an independent review by Indecon of the end-to-end processes linked to departmental funding schemes. Planning work is under way for a new State agency to support the delivery of early learning and childcare. There is work to develop a national plan to further the development of Irish language provision in the early learning and childcare sector, which will be published later this year. There is ongoing work to review the legislative and regulatory framework for school-age childcare, to strengthen the inspection system through ensuring that Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, has the appropriate enforcement powers to deal with serious cases of non-compliance by services and through planning work to establish a single inspectorate for early learning and childcare.

Early learning and childcare is a public good with benefits across society. In recognition of this, the Government has agreed an ambitious new programme of work to allow us to build on the significant progress made in the area in recent years. Moreover, the Government is committed to continued investment in this sector, in particular through additional investment in budget 2026, to achieve our combined objectives of affordable, accessible and quality early learning and childcare.

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