Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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86. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for an update regarding the way in which she has initiated the lowering of the cost of childcare in the State since she took office as Minister; and the steps she has taken for broader reform of the childcare model. [21093/25]

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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The programme for Government outlines an ambitious plan to progressively reduce the cost of childcare to €200 per month, and commits to a review and increase of core funding, a reduction in the administrative burden on providers, capital investment to build State-owned childcare facilities and so much more. What steps has the Minister taken to progress these actions? Will she outline what plans are currently in motion?

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is correct. The Government has made a significant commitment to improve accessibility, availability, affordability and the quality of early learning and childcare provision. Investment in early learning and childcare is now at an unprecedented level with public funding exceeding €1.37 billion in 2025, clearly demonstrating the Government’s commitment to this area.

The programme for Government provides the impetus to go much further and to deliver much more high-quality early learning and childcare places at a cost that is affordable to families. I am committed to establishing a €200 per child per month cap on early learning and childcare costs for families within the lifetime of the Government. This work will build on the significant measures taken to date to improve affordability. The early childhood care and education programme provides two years of preschool without charge and enjoys a participation rate of 96% each year. The national childcare scheme is now worth a minimum of €96.20 per child per week for 45 hours.

This Government is also committed to providing capital investment to build or purchase State-owned early learning and childcare facilities to create additional capacity in areas where unmet need exists. This would mark a very substantial and significant shift in the policy direction that the Department has pursued thus far. A forward-planning model is now in development which will be central to the Department's plans to achieve the policy goals to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early learning and childcare system, with State-led facilities adding capacity. Officials are currently developing a mapping tool, using administrative data on schemes and population location, to identify areas where supply and demand mismatches are greatest. A recent Ipsos poll to parents will also help inform future planning. This will enable the State to step in where it is necessary.

As the Deputy will appreciate, we are at the very early stages of the programme for Government but work is under way.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister for her reply. The Social Democrats believe that solving the systemic problems facing the childcare sector in Ireland will not happen by doing more of the same. A triple threat is facing the sector. We cannot ignore that any longer. A dearth of places faces children and young people. There is a real capacity issue in many counties. There is also a lack of affordability for parents. The third key piece is very much the issue of compensation and benefits for a sector that is providing such a crucial component and role for our society - we are seeing a recruitment and retention crisis play out before our eyes.

The 2021 partnership for the public good report acknowledged that early years and childcare is a public good, yet we continue to rely solely on the private market to meet that public good. Does the Minister agree that the State cannot continue to rely solely on the private sector to address these problems?

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I agree with much of what the Deputy said. It is much of Government policy insofar as the key elements of that policy are, in the first instance, to manage and reduce costs for parents, which is a key anchor, and, second, to ensure sustainability of the service is being provided and that providers are sustainable in moving forward. A further element is to increase provision of places and to ensure we have a workforce that is properly recompensed for the work it does in this area.

On affordability for parents, and I referenced this, significant core funding of almost €1 billion by the Government has gone into ensuring that money is in place to ensure reduced costs for parents. In addition, the national childcare scheme has undergone a number of enhancements, which include the extension of the universal subsidy to all children under 15. There have been two increases to the minimum-----

Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Thank you, Minister.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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The scale of what the Government is proposing, and what parents are demanding and what the sector deserves, is very significant. To see that type of growth and investment requires strategic cross-party thinking on this. I wrote to the Minister a couple of weeks ago proposing that we establish a special select time-bound committee, páistecare, which would perform a similar role to and take an approach like that of Sláintecare, to spell out the vision for the future of childcare and early education in Ireland. There is real merit to that in the context of what is going on from the Government side and the cross-party ideas about it. It would be an opportunity to listen to the sector and the key stakeholders and to report back on the future of childcare, certainly with regard to public provision. I again call on the Minister to take the opportunity for implementation of a committee like this. We could all see the benefits of that in the long run.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I will be clear. I am very happy to engage with the Deputy on this. I engage on an ongoing basis with stakeholders on whatever body of work needs to be done. He is right. We are unanimous in our acknowledgement across every sector within this Chamber that a job of work needs to be done and must continue to be done in this sector. However, while significant progress has been made, more progress needs to be made. Specifically, for example, and the Deputy referenced this, we must ensure workers in this area are appropriately remunerated. A sum of €45 million has been ring-fenced for that purpose this year to ensure that providers can continue and €350 million will be made available to them through core funding in the next tranche of funding. Equally, where there are gaps, it is appropriate that the Government steps in and makes provision for places being made available, whether these are State-run or whatever way they will be run. A forward-planning model is already up and running in the Department and there is a budgetary consideration around the €200 per month.