Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I am the first to say there has been progress, but serious issues remain with capacity, access and core funding that need to be fixed. Today, I am hosting local childcare providers and parents in the audiovisual room. We will focus on a payscale that reflects qualifications and expertise, pressures they are facing with recruitment, making core funding work, especially for small providers and how paperwork and bureaucracy are suffocating the sector. There are major holes for parents and providers in the fee adjustment that was introduced last year. I refer to the local independent provider who has not raised her fees in eight years and is struggling to survive and who was granted an increase of just €4 per month when others in the area charge €200 to €300 more, and to the parent who was on enhanced subsidies, not universal subsidies, whose fees were increased overall last year.

The programme for Government recognises these challenges-----

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