Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 2:

To delete all words after "Seanad Éireann" and substitute the following: "welcomes the significant prioritisation by the Government of measures designed to:

- reduce out-of-pocket costs of early learning and childcare for families;

- better align the supply of State-subsidised early learning and childcare with demand; and

- increase the pay and improve the working conditions of early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners, as well as develop career pathways and promote careers in the sector, in line with Nurturing Skills, the Workforce Plan (2021-2028);

acknowledges the unprecedented growth in State funding in the sector, which has increased by 161 per cent since 2020, with the Budget 2026 allocation to be €1.48 billion;

acknowledges and welcomes the major achievements of the funding model recommended in the Partnership for Public Good to deliver increased investment accompanied by increased public management, in particular:

- the continued implementation of the National Childcare Scheme, with approximately 35,000 additional children or 286,000 children in total set to benefit from subsidies in 2026, including children in childminding settings;

- the continuation of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme that will benefit more than 105,000 children in 2026 – which enjoys uptakes rates in excess of 96 per cent and has removed barriers to accessing pre-school education, with data from a recent review showing that more than 40 per cent of families would not have been able to send their child to pre-school without this programme;

- the award-winning Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), that will support up to 9,000 children with a disability to access the ECCE programme in 2026, with AIM now expanded beyond the ECCE programme, where ECCE children are benefitting from AIM support outside the ECCE programme hours – both in term and out, and AIM capitation increasing by 10 per cent to bring rates into line with new rates of pay for early years educators under the updated Employment Regulation Orders;

- Equal Start – the funding model and set of universal and targeted measures to support access to, and participation in, early learning and childcare for children and their families who experience disadvantage, with the number of settings designated as priority settings in receipt of targeted supports to rise from 787 to 820 in 2026;

- Core Funding – with the allocation of €393 million in year 4 of the scheme (September 2025-August 2026) set to rise by at least 11 per cent in year 5 (September 2026-August 2027) to at least €437 million - to support a range of important priorities, including:

- accessibility for families through funding for growth in the sector at 4.2 per cent;

- affordability to support services to sustainably maintain fee management conditions, including new maximum fee caps benefitting parents facing the highest fees across the country;

- quality through support with the costs of the new Employment Regulation Orders that commenced on 13 October through which approximately 67 per cent of staff working in the sector will see an increase in pay;

acknowledges and welcomes the major progress in implementation of the National Action Plan for Childminding (2021-2028), with the commencement of Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) (Childminding Services) Regulations 2024 and relevant sections of the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2024 making it possible for childminders to start applying to Tusla to go through the registration process, and once registered by Tusla, to apply to take part in the National Childcare Scheme;

acknowledges and welcomes the latest data from a range of sources that shows capacity in the early learning and childcare sector is increasing in terms of the number of places and hours of provision that services are offering, the number of places opening and the number of staff in the early learning and childcare workforce, with:

- data from the Early Years Sector Profile Survey showing that, between 2021/22 and 2023/24, the estimated number of enrolments in services rose by 19 per cent from 197,185 to 234,597;

- data from Tusla on service closures and new service registrations showing a net increase of 226 in the overall number of services in 2024 and a six-year low in the number of service closures;

- data from the Early Years Sector Profile Survey showing that, between 2021/22 and 2022/23, the estimated number of staff in the early learning and childcare workforce rose by 8 per cent from 34,357 to 37,060.

Seanad Éireann also:

acknowledges that there continues to be evidence of some families having difficulty finding appropriate places at a cost that is affordable and that despite progress in recent years, owing to intervention by the State, the workforce in the sector remains a low-paid one;

acknowledges and welcomes the development of a Forward Planning and Delivery Unit, with important work underway in that Unit to develop a forward planning model and explore options to introduce public provision to operate alongside private and community providers where there are shortfalls in capacity, supported by €36 million in capital funding in 2026, which will enable for the first time the acquisition of buildings by the Department of Children, Disability and Equality to begin an element of State-led early learning and childcare.

Seanad Éireann welcomes:

- the commitment by Government to a reduction in fees paid by parents to €200 per month over its lifetime;

- the Budget 2026 announcement of new maximum fee caps in 2026 that will reduce costs for families paying the highest fees across the country as a key step towards that €200 per month target;

- enhancements in Year 5 of the scheme to improve pay for educators and school age childcare practitioners with implementation of new Employment Regulation Orders;

- the work underway to develop an Action Plan to ‘build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early education and care system with State-led facilities adding capacity', with the Action Plan to be published in two phases, with the second phase to follow after undertaking a broad public consultation, in line with the commitment in the Programme for Government. The Action Plan will set out plans to achieve Programme for Government commitments, including the commitment to reduce maximum monthly fees to €200 over the lifetime of the Government.

While noting that further developments and investment are required, Seanad Éireann recognises that there are many positive and progressive elements to the current early learning and childcare sector and acknowledges the pathway for improving access, affordability and quality is set out in the new Programme for Government."