Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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It is not news that families with young children require childcare and early years education. Why, then, are these families continuously failed by the State in the provision of those services?

In Dublin Rathdown, I am contacted regularly about childcare and early years education. Indeed, it is one of the foremost issues within my constituency. There is a shortage of available places and, rather than seeing new providers coming on stream, we are seeing more and more closures. Costs are too high for parents and providers in the sector are in real difficulty.

Young families are desperately struggling to find childcare for their children. I have been contacted by so many parents who are at their wits' end with this. Last week, a mother contacted me who, despite having her child registered before birth, struggled for months before finding childcare to allow her to return to work. Another constituent said to me: "It is not a surprise that families with young children need childcare. How is this still occurring? Young families are being failed at the very first hurdle."

The providers of childcare and early years services are also struggling in Dublin Rathdown. We have seen many of them forced to close their doors, with Mountainside Montessori in Leopardstown and Naíonra Seomra Mary in Stepaside being just two of the most recent examples. Another small provider in my constituency told me she has major concerns about the viability of her business in the coming years. She does not want to opt in to the core funding model because it does not work for her specific set-up. That means it is hard for her to see herself operating beyond another couple of years.

When childcare places can be obtained, the cost is often so high, it puts a real strain on families, with some parents being forced out of the workplace. Workers in the sector are without a pay scale or security, with retention of staff remaining a real problem for providers.

We need a public model of childcare that will address the multitude of issues being encountered. My colleague Deputy Farrelly has proposed the establishment of a cross-party committee on childcare. This would establish a short-, medium- and long-term plan for the provision of childcare in Ireland. The Government has promised to reduce childcare costs to €200 a month but it is nowhere near meeting that commitment. Families are being forced to pay hundreds of euro more than that every month. Parents all over the country find it almost impossible even to secure a place. The commitment to roll out a public model of childcare and reduce costs to €200 per month has to be more than electioneering. It must become a reality.

As someone who raised a daughter alone, I acknowledge the specific challenges faced by single parents trying to access childcare in my constituency. Both financially and logistically, it is a unique barrier to employment and, indeed, to participation in society when we provide so little support to families headed up by people parenting alone. The single biggest measure we could take to advance gender equality in the State is to provide high-quality and affordable childcare. Women still take on far more of the care role in the household than men do. When we make it hard to source external care, we penalise women and force them to decide between career and home.

What is being done to support providers in the sector? How is the deficit in childcare and early years places being addressed? Will the Government commit to establishing a cross-party committee on childcare?

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue and for sharing her own experience. It is really important that we, as female parliamentarians, share our experience. It is inspiring for others who may follow in her footsteps that the Deputy has done so.

The challenge of providing accessible childcare is very much real. The Deputy outlined the issues many of her constituents face. Many of my constituents, and some of my friends, are in the same boat, having to put down the names of children who are not yet born or named for childcare places. This is not ideal and the Government is committed to addressing it.

Early learning and childcare capacity is increasing. That is a fact. Data from the annual early years sector profile for 2023-24 shows the estimated number of enrolments increased by 19% from two years previously. The Tusla register of services demonstrates a net increase of 226 in the numbers of registered early learning and childcare services last year. That is really positive because it shows it is a growing sector that is ambitious to, and is designed to, meet the forward demands.

A forward planning model is in development by the Department of Children, Disability and Equality. It will be central to building an affordable, high-quality and accessible early learning and childcare system, with State-led facilities adding capacity to what already exists. As the Deputy rightly said, that is something many of the parties campaigned for during the most recent election. The Government continues to support the ongoing development and resourcing of core funding, which has given rise to a significant expansion of places since the scheme was first introduced. It provides stability to services and reduces the risk associated with opening a new service or expanding an existing one. We must do this to support childcare providers.

The Government is also supporting the expansion of capacity through capital funding. The building blocks extension grant scheme is designed to increase capacity in the one- to three-year-old cohort, the pre—early childhood care and education category and in the age range for full daycare. The Minister has approved 50 applications to progress to the next stage of the building blocks extension grant scheme. When completed, these projects will deliver 1,500 additional full-time childcare places for one- to three-year-olds.

The Deputy is absolutely right in her comments on the impact of access to high-quality, affordable childcare on gender equality in the workplace. That is why we need to support parents, providers and those working to build their career in the sector. When I was Minister of State in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I got the opportunity to work with some of the organisations that represent our childcare workers. I was delighted to sign some of the new statutory instruments into effect relating to their wages. It is really important that we continue to invest in the sector, whether in the physical buildings, through core funding for service providers or by way of funding for childcare workers. That is the best way to support parents and children and to deliver better gender equality in workplaces.

Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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While I appreciate the Minister of State's response, it is disappointing there is nobody here from the Department of children. I welcome the statistics she shared that show an increase in provision of places and the work being done to address the problems. However, as she knows, that increase is not keeping pace with the needs of families across the country, including in my constituency of Dublin Rathdown.

We have seen tweaks in the childcare system, with attempts to address one shortfall here opening up another elsewhere. It is not working. We need radical reform. My colleague Deputy Farrelly's proposal, páistecare, is a plan for childcare that is like what Sláintecare was supposed to be for the healthcare system. It is a transformational approach that will supersede shifts and changes of policy and approach under successive governments. It will lock in cross-party support to transform childcare provision in the State. I urge the Government to consider it.

As a State, we are missing a trick when it comes to artificial intelligence, AI. At a meeting today of the AI committee, of which I am a member, we spoke about the labour displacement we all know is coming down the tracks as a result of AI. Childcare is one of the sectors that is untouchable by AI. None of the caring professions, including teaching and childcare, can be automated. However, we need to value the childcare profession. Right now, we do not pay workers enough. The sector offers only precarious employment, mostly to women, including migrant women. We do not value it enough as a society to capitalise on the labour displacement we will see elsewhere.

I ask again that the Government commit to a cross-party committee that will bring together everyone across the political spectrum to put forward a short-, medium- and long-term vision for the transformation to a public model of childcare provision in this country.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy and her colleague for the work they are doing on this issue. The Government is committed to building an affordable, high-quality and accessible early learning and childcare system. I will take her recommendation for a cross-party committee to the Minister, Deputy Foley.

The programme for Government commits, for the first time ever, to provide capital investment to build or purchase State-owned early learning and childcare facilities. This will create additional capacity in areas where unmet need exists. That is the trajectory we are on and we are very clear about it.

State ownership of facilities is a very substantial and significant development. It offers the potential for much greater scope to influence the nature and volume of provision and to ensure better alignment with estimated demand, projected demand and current demand. The programme for Government also commits to planning the development of State-led facilities in tandem with the school building programme. Some early scoping work has already been carried out to explore options to introduce a segment of public provision, which I know is something the Deputy is particularly interested in. More detailed and extensive policy development and design is ongoing to progress to the next stage, the implementation stage, having regard to the wider emerging policy context as set out in the programme for Government.

As I am sure the Deputy is aware, the Department also funds 30 city and county childcare committees. These provide support and assistance to families and early learning and childcare providers. That network can assist in identifying vacant places in services for the children and families who need them and in engaging proactively with services to explore possibilities for expansion among services that already exist, especially where there is unmet need locally. Parents experiencing difficulty with regard to their early learning and childcare needs should contact their local city or county childcare committee for assistance.

On the Deputy's wider point and páistecare, I was in the Chamber when her colleague raised it with the Tánaiste. He expressed an interest in learning more about it. I am sure the Minister, Deputy Foley, will be as well.