Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for her continued engagement on these matters. As she is aware, the programme for Government commits to "undertake a broad consultation and publish a detailed Action Plan to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education and care system".

Given the need to make progress as soon as possible while also allowing time for a broad consultation process, I intend to publish the action plan in two phases. This autumn I will publish phase 1 of the action plan, which will be short-term actions for 2026 and which will reflect the budget made available through the Estimates process for 2026. I will publish phase 2 actions after completion of the consultation process, which the Deputy referred to. That consultation process will commence in the coming months.

Of course, we have not waited until publication of the action plan to start the important work we need to do in this area. The Deputy will be aware that the maximum fee caps were extended to all partner services in core funding this month. The introduction of fee caps is an important step towards the reduction of parental fees to €200 per month over the lifetime of the Government.

While the maximum fee caps were introduced for new services last year, they now cover all services that are in core funding. In addition, the new fee caps are set at a lower level than before. The maximum fee for a full-day place of between 40 and 50 hours per week is €295 per week before Department subsidies under the national childcare scheme and the ECCE programme are deducted.

For those in the minimum level of subsidy, this will bring their out-of-pocket costs down to less than €200 per week, with those on income-assessed subsidies paying less. While this is a helpful development for those paying the highest fees, it is important to note that with a median fee of €200 per week nationally, this results in many paying just €100 after the minimum subsidies are deducted. This latest measure builds on a range of supports already in place. The ECCE programme provides two years of preschool without charge and has participation rates of 96% to 97%.

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