Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber and thank the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, for updating us on the NDP. Notwithstanding that there are very serious sums involved in the national planning framework and national development plan, there are serious questions about the scale of ambition in the national development plan. The Government acknowledges it is going to cost about €28 billion to retrofit all houses. The Minister of State knows how important the deep retrofitting of houses is going to be in beginning to try to meet our climate action targets. The State acknowledges that about €28 billion needs to be spent between now and 2030 and yet is only stumping up €8 billion of that. There are serious questions for this Government about its fiscal commitment to ensuring we can bring about real climate action in this decade. On housing, there is a target of 33,000 houses to be built every year from now until 2050, yet there is unpublished research by the Housing Commission which suggests the targets need to be almost doubled. We have not heard a response from the Government on what realistic targets can be put in place. If we are serious about ensuring there is a house for all, we need to examine those targets and the scale of the Government's ambition.

I had wished to raise one issue in detail today with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, in particular. I may pick it up with him another time. The issue is the €70 million to be allocated in the national development plan to the building blocks capital programme. The figure of €70 million is a drop in the ocean compared with the scale of the national development plan but it is absolutely vital in the context of shortages in the childcare sector, particularly in Dublin at the moment. While it is important to acknowledge there has been progress in helping families with the affordability of childcare, that help is a reduction of somewhere between 9% and 25%, which is still far off where we need to be to make childcare truly affordable. The overwhelming issue in the early years sector is availability of places. In many instances, there is a lack of places because there is a sheer lack of appropriate physical infrastructure for preschool places and crèches. A particular example is in Stoneybatter, in Dublin 7, an area the Minister knows only too well, as do I. By June of this year, there will be a loss of 105 preschool places in that small urban village because two primary schools, which have for many years hosted two preschools, now need to make space for additional needs provision. There is a lack of joined-up thinking in this case. The Department of Education says we need to expand special needs education but the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, does not seem to have been informed of any decisions by the Department of Education and some children with special needs aged three and four attending the preschools are now at a loss. There is no joined-up thinking. As the preschools have had to be pushed out by the primary schools, they are left high and dry. They cannot find anywhere.

Any time we have raised this with the Minister responsible for children, while there is a lot of sympathy, we are told his Department can do very little. The city and county childcare committees tell us they can do very little because they are not resourced for it. The one thing they point to is the €70 million of the building blocks capital expenditure programme. We have seen no detail as to whether any money has been spent or is planned to be spent. I wish to tell the Minister of State that the situation is urgent. The loss of 105 places in Stoneybatter is just one example. There are at least four other crèches or preschools across Dublin's inner city that cannot find space. Others are creaking at the seams with massive waiting lists that would love to take on more children. There are families who simply do not have places, yet they cannot expand. The key question is, where is the Government's ambition? Where is its vision as to ensuring there is a sufficient number of places? I would like to hear a response from the Minister of State today or by follow-up to comment on what is happening to that €70 million. It needs to be spent now.

There is a crèche on Hardwicke Street, Dublin 7. Over the door, it states it was funded by the EU Structural Fund and Irish Government funding. For good reason, EU structural funding is not coming into the country any more and our public finances are in a very good place. While there is an overall pot of money allocated to the national development plan, we need to see more money going into ensuring that physical places are put in place for the early years sector.