Sharon Keogan (Independent)

I rise today in support of this motion not because I agree with the proposers on everything - far from it - but because on this issue they are right. Budget 2026 has failed Irish families. It has failed mothers and fathers who are working every hour they can just to afford the privilege of placing their children in the care they need so that they can work in the first place. It has failed our children, who deserve nurturing and support, not waiting lists. It has failed to deliver on the promise made by the Government to make childcare available at a cost of €200 a month. That promise now lies in tatters.

Let us be clear. Some families pay over €1,000 a month for childcare. This is not a support system; it is a penalty for having children. In a country that claims to value the family, it is a disgrace. We are told that Ireland is one of the wealthiest nations in Europe. If that is true, how is it that Poland, a country with a lower GDP per capita, has this week passed legislation to eliminate income tax for families with two or more children? Why is it that Hungary, with far fewer resources, offers generous maternity benefits, housing benefits and tax exemptions for families who choose to raise children? Yet we have the gall to turn to the world and present ourselves as a modern economic success story. Given that hard-working parents in Ireland fret over each new pregnancy, thinking of how they will manage with new mouths to feed, it is a joke that we call ourselves a developed First World nation. The nations I have mentioned understand that raising a family is not a lifestyle choice. It is the foundation of society and they legislate accordingly. Ireland, by contrast, short-changes parents by bypassing affordability and access while pouring billions of euro into unnecessary programmes such as a bloated NGO sector and an IPAS system which has been described by The Irish Times as the wild west of money making. We are told that budget 2026 allocates €1.48 billion to early learning and childcare, but what good is that if the average parent still pays nearly €800 a month out of pocket?

Although Sinn Féin, which proposed this motion, is right to call out the Government's failure, I remind it and this House that Sinn Féin supported the 2024 referendums that endangered the constitutional definition of "family". I hope this motion signals a change of heart in Sinn Féin because you cannot claim to be pro-family while undermining the very foundation of what "family" means in the Constitution.

This motion calls for childcare at a cost of €10 a day, which is a reasonable and achievable goal. It calls for better pay and conditions for early years educators, which is long overdue. It calls for the rethinking of budget 2026, which is essential. I would go further by calling for a more ambitious model not just of childcare but also of support to the family. Such a model would include a stronger programme of public support and services, a tax cut for families, loans to parent families, and greater subsidies for all the essentials that families need. For such a model we need a total overhaul of our mindset, as politicians and as a nation. We need to put children, not budget margins, first. We need a mindset that recognises that supporting families is not a cost but an investment in our future. Let us not pretend that this budget is progressive. It is not. It is a betrayal of promises that were made and it is a failure of vision. I will not stand by while Irish families are forced to choose between work and children, between rent and crèche fees, and between survival and dignity.