Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I want to address the Deputy's first point on Donaghmede. I join with her in rightly acknowledging the very difficult, challenging, stressful and sometimes dangerous environment in which our care workers find themselves. None of us can fully comprehend the most horrific, tragic and saddening situation care workers endured yesterday. I want to join with the Deputy in paying tribute to them. I also agree with her that there will, obviously, need to be full answers and transparency in relation to all the procedures and protocols that were in place. As she rightly said, however, a Garda investigation is under way, and we need to allow that process to proceed. I obviously do not want to, nor has the Deputy, in any way interfere with the privacy of those involved or the ongoing Garda investigation other than to say that this is a very serious incident and needs to be treated as such. It is also an extraordinarily tragic and saddening incident.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of childcare. I will speak directly to the Minister, Deputy Foley, about the issue she has highlighted in relation to Pobal and the drawdown of grants and where that is at. I will ask the Minister to come back to her directly. We are absolutely committed to reducing the cost of childcare to €200 per month during the lifetime of the Government. I will also acknowledge that the Labour Party was the first party to propose that, and there is now a political consensus across this House among pretty much all political parties that this is what we are going to deliver during the lifetime of this Government. I did say that I would like to see significant progress on it in the early part of the Government, and we can still make significant progress on it in the early part of the Government. We have only had the first of five budgets. However, we do need to see everything move in some form of sequential order that makes sense.

There are 21 commitments in the programme for Government relating to childcare. The next practical step now will be for the Minister, Deputy Foley, to publish the action plan on childcare to see how we move the 21 actions together in a way that gets us to the €200 per month per child, absolutely, but that also makes sure that some of the issues the Deputy is highlighting and some of the issues I see in my own constituency and home town around places, capacity and the need for public provision are also addressed. There are simply not enough childcare spaces. That lack of capacity is having a real impact for families. As the Deputy acknowledged, we did in the budget provide funding to expand capacity in the sector while continuing to freeze fees at the levels they were four years ago. The cost of childcare does need to come down. The Minister will publish that roadmap and action plan very shortly. We need to show parents and providers the sequence in which we intend to move forward.

We have outlined a record budget for childcare of almost €1.5 billion. The national childcare scheme, which has over 250,000 children currently enrolled, will be further funded for an additional 35,000 children next year, which is a 14% increase. In the coming months, the Minister will also set out plans for a new maximum fee cap set from next September, reducing costs for families paying the highest fees first across the country. The Ministers, Deputies Foley and Burke, and Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, have taken measures to sign off on a 10% increase in the minimum rate of pay for educators. That took place this Monday. There is money in the budget to do further on pay in 2026. We did also specifically target children most in need of additional supports, including expanding the back-to-school clothing and footwear payment to preschool children for the first time ever.

See this speech in context