Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy. We both share the same constituency with a lot of young families. I share her objective of ensuring we develop more places and more opportunities to have childcare facilities and affordable childcare across our community and indeed in communities across the country. The Minister, Deputy Foley, is working with her allocation of €795 million over the next five years. Obviously, that includes children, equality and disability. She is working on a on a multiyear sectoral plan to set out specific steps and overall allocations in respect of some of the childcare schemes the Deputy referenced. As part of the budget, we agreed to continue. Obviously, the increased demand for childcare across our economy has had to be funded in the context of budget 2026. An additional 35,000 places under the national childcare scheme are being supported in that context.

We want to complement many of the smaller childcare providers that have developed their own capacity in communities across the country. Obviously, the State will be doing more and the sectoral investment plan for childcare will put the detail on that and provide the specific allocations. We have a wider vision on childcare in the programme for Government whereby we want to make progress across successive budgets when it comes to the affordability initiatives but also the capital allocations, which will be set out in the coming weeks.

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