Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)

Gabhaim buíochas as an am agus as an deis labhairt leis an Teach. I am very appreciative of the time and opportunity to speak to Senators here today. I welcome this timely motion tabled by Senators Tully and Ryan of Sinn Féin, and the amendment tabled by Senators Harmon, Cosgrove, Stephenson and Noonan, as an opportunity to debate the important issue of early learning and childcare. I acknowledge and appreciate, as Senator Tully referenced, the manner in which the Seanad has accommodated my presence here.I want to record that. As already outlined, there is an amendment tabled to the motion.

The Opposition motion refers to: "Budget 2026, which breaks the pre-election promises of the Government parties to deliver childcare to parents for €200 a month”. I do not accept this. Budget 2026 is just the first of five budgets that this Government will deliver, and the outcome of this budget is allowing us to take important steps towards that €200 per month target over the lifetime of the Government. I want to be clear that this is what is actually in the programme for Government. I know this because I was involved in putting it together. We were very clear in the programme that it is a commitment to be delivered over the lifetime of the Government.

The Opposition amendment calls for active steps to establish a public model of childcare. Let me be clear: the programme for Government already commits us to delivering increased investment accompanied by increased public management through the funding model recommended in the Partnership for the Public Good expert group report. Furthermore, 2026 will see for the first time ever the acquisition of buildings to provide the infrastructure for State-led early learning and childcare delivery. I know this was very much part of the Labour Party amendment.

Having said all that, I absolutely acknowledge the challenges in the early learning and childcare sector. The cost of early learning and childcare is high for many parents, particularly those who use long hours or have more than one child using services. The supply of early learning and childcare remains uneven for certain cohorts of children, for certain types of provision and in some areas. Despite the progress made with a recent employment regulation order, ERO, to improve pay and conditions for early years educators, the level of pay in the sector does not reflect the value of the work that they do. This Government is confident, however, that the commitments we have made in the programme for Government will address these challenges over the lifetime of this Government. This includes parents paying no more than €200 per month for early learning and childcare, and early learning educators and school-age childcare practitioners being paid at a level that reflects the importance of their work. There will be State-led services operating alongside private and community services, as well as a newly regulated cohort of childminders.

In 2026, current expenditure for early learning and childcare will increase to €1.48 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 9%, or €125 million. This additional funding will deliver real and meaningful change to the lives of thousands of children and their families as well as to early years educators, school-age childcare practitioners and providers. Indeed, all our indicators for next year point to progress. A total of 105,250 children will be supported to access free preschool education under the ECCE programme next year. We know from a recent review of this programme that 40% of families would not be able to send their child to preschool without this free programme.

Some 286,000 children will benefit from their statutory entitlement to the national childcare scheme subsidies to offset the cost of early learning and childcare next year, including a growing number of children that use childminding settings. This represents a year-on-year increase of 14%, with 35,000 additional children to benefit from the scheme next year. Importantly, the number of children accessing this scheme through a sponsorship arrangement is expected to rise by 3,500 next year. These children face considerable adversity in their young lives and access to early learning and childcare serves to improve their life chances, which is important.

Approximately, 8,400 preschool children with a disability or additional learning need will benefit from the highest level of support provided through the access and inclusion model. This is an increase from 7,900 preschool children who availed of the model in the previous year. In addition, the numbers benefiting from this support outside the ECCE programme, both in term and out of term, will also rise.

Equal Start is the programme of supports for preschool children at risk of educational disadvantage. We will also see an increase in the number of services designated for targeted supports under the programme and an increase in the numbers of children benefiting from these targeted supports. This year, 787 services serving 35,000 children have a priority designation under Equal Start. Next year, we estimate 820 services serving 37,000 children will have this designation. Targeted supports for these services include: funding for additional staff hours; access to the early talk boost programme, which tackles language delay; and access to the new Bia Blasta preschool nutrition programme that provides free daily lunches for preschool children. In addition to this, the Department of Social Protection will extend the back to school clothing and footwear allowance to preschool children from age two next year as part of budget 2026. This welcome development is supporting the delivery of a key Equal Start action to deliver practical needs' funding to support children’s full participation in early learning and childcare.

Next year, the allocation for core funding will rise by 15%, with the allocation for year five of this scheme set to reach at least €437 million. On top of this, the Government will make available additional funding next year for further improvements to staff pay in the sector, as was done this year. That ERO is important. This significant level of funding will support a range of key Government priorities next year and into year five of the core funding scheme, which runs from September 2026 to August 2027. It will allow us to continue to support growth in the sector, which we estimate will be 4.2% in year five of the scheme. It will allow us to continue to support providers with the cost of the ERO that commenced earlier this month, through which 67% of staff working in the sector have seen an increase in their pay. It will allow us to support providers to sustainably maintain the fee management conditions that are attached to core funding. Specifically, throughout 2026 and into year five of the core funding scheme, fees will remain at 2021 levels for the majority of providers who participate in core funding. This is enormously significant in controlling costs for parents and families, particularly in the context of general inflation across the economy since 2021. I cannot think of any other services where we can say fees have been frozen at 2021 rates. There will be further adjustments to the current maximum fee caps in September 2026, driving down the highest fees charged across the country and benefiting thousands of hard-pressed parents. Further details of the new, lower maximum fee caps will be announced in the coming months. A combination of fee management conditions under core funding and subsidies through the national childcare scheme has the potential to dramatically improve affordability for parents. We have seen how the consumer price Index for childcare fell by more than 36% at a time when all other household costs across the economy were rising. We have seen through international league tables how Ireland has quickly moved from being among the highest for out-of-pocket early learning and childcare costs for low-income households across the OECD to being at the OECD average for two-parent households on low income and below the OECD average for single-parent households on low income. We anticipate further affordability improvements for families next year arising from budget 2026. As of today, 4,503, or 92.2%, of services are participating in the core funding scheme. This is the highest number of services in the scheme since it first began. With more services than ever in contract for core funding, committing to work in partnership with the Government to deliver early learning and childcare for the public good, we will continue to maximise the impact Government investment is having in this sector.

A significant package of capital investment has been secured through the revised national development plan over the next five years. The details of this full investment package will be published in the coming months. As part of budget 2026, however, I announced that capital expenditure for early learning and childcare will rise to €36 million. This represents a year-on-year increase of 20%, or €6 million, on the previous year. This will allow the Government to accelerate its work to ensure the supply of early learning and childcare meets demand, again building on recent progress in this area. In 2026, as I have said, we will see for the first time ever the acquisition of buildings to provide the infrastructure for State-led early learning and childcare delivery. State ownership of early learning and childcare facilities is a very substantial and significant shift in the policy direction that the Department has pursued heretofore. It offers the potential for much greater scope to influence the nature and volume of provision available and to ensure better alignment with estimated demand, with public provision operating alongside the established private and community elements of the sector, as well as childminders.

A forward planning model has been developed by my officials to map the location of different types of early learning and childcare provision against child population data. This will allow us to identify areas of need, forecast demand, and target areas for the delivery of public supply, where required. Alongside this, I will also open a further building blocks scheme in 2026 to allow for extensions to existing premises to support services to offer additional full-day places. This follows on from the successful building blocks scheme in 2025 that is currently operating and will deliver up to 1,500 new places for one to three-year-olds.

As committed to in the programme for Government, my Department is developing an action plan to build an affordable, high-quality, and accessible early learning and childcare system. The action plan will take the full lifetime of the Government to implement. However, the issues it addresses will affect children and families, early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners as well as providers here and now. That is why the action plan will involve a phased approach.Phase 1 of the action plan will be published in the coming months and will include short-term measures we will take using existing policy tools. Phase 2 will set out medium-term actions and will be published after completion of the broad consultation process the programme for Government commits to. Details of the broad consultation process will be announced in the coming weeks. I know this is of interest to the House.

In opposing the motion and amendment and in putting forward a countermotion, the Government’s objective is not to claim that there are no challenges in the sector but rather to demonstrate that the Government has set out a pathway to address these challenges so we can deliver a world-class early learning and childcare system. I believe the funding secured in budget 2026, complemented by phase 1 of the action plan we are now developing, will allow us to take the first steps on this pathway.