Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Parents will tell you again and again that supply is a major issue across Dublin 15. The Minister of State knows that. I have reached out to some of the childcare committees to see what is happening and what interaction there is. My feedback from that is that it is not consistent. Some committees are working closer with planning officials than others. If we are to address undersupply, we need those structures to be working. I do not think they are working in the way that they need to in order to deliver. We are using section 28 facilities to help with supply but, as Senator Seery Kearney and I have shown, there are exemptions. I am saying that when they are built, they are not being opened. We have an opportunity here. There are section 28 facilities when we should be planning for childcare facilities. Not only that, but they need to be in appropriate buildings. They need to be planned that way as appropriate buildings.

As is the case with Part V properties, we have an opportunity to step in, take ownership of these facilities, open them up as community childcare centres and deliver for people. We need to look at a review of the community childcare committees and how they interact with county development plans. We need a review of section 28 facilities to actually deliver in people's communities. We need to take that deliberate and essential step into actually purchasing the social and community childcare infrastructure in people's communities so that we deliver not just the subsidies, which are great, but the places. That is what people really need now as well as subsidies.