Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)

I am here tonight not just as a Senator but also as a mother and as chairperson of a community-run crèche. I have seen from all sides what is happening here. We have heard a lot of talk about investment in education, which is absolutely welcomed. The budget announcement of 1,700 new special needs assistants is welcome, but with such promises comes deep concern. According to the Department, 38% of the SNA workforce holds an early years qualification. Expanding the SNA workforce without addressing the conditions of the early years sector risks drawing more qualified educators out of the childcare sector and into schools, a move that is only going to worsen critical staffing shortages.

Our early years and school-age care system is in crisis. It is not working for parents, for the providers or for the women who make up the vast majority of the workforce. Ireland has the highest level of private childcare provision in the OECD. It is a system that puts profit above public good, and a system that will never meet the needs of a changing society. Parents are paying the equivalent of a second mortgage, yet they face long waiting lists and uncertainty. In too many homes, mothers are being forced out of the workforce simply because childcare is unaffordable or unavailable. Sinn Féin has been clear all along that affordable and accessible childcare must not be thrown on the scrapheap of broken election promises.

We are committed to the public model of childcare, one that puts children, families and educators at its heart. When we listen to those working on the ground, we hear about a system that is creaking under pressure. A community childcare manager in my own area put it very plainly: the national childcare scheme penalises parents for using fewer hours. Funding is allocated based on attendance, not on booking. That means parents pay the same fees even if their child attends less. If they use fewer hours, they actually lose their subsidy. One parent saw her weekly bill increase by over €50 simply by collecting her children early. The system effectively forces children to stay in the service for longer so that parents can afford to pay the fees. Meanwhile, the ECCE funding, the foundation of early education, has not increased since 2018. Core funding, which was introduced later to cover rising costs, was never meant to replace ECCE increases, yet here we are seven years later. Providers are trying to cover 2025 costs with 2018 rates. The AIMS programme, which supports inclusion for children with additional needs, promises extra hours for families, but services cannot staff those hours. The result is frustration for parents and burnout for staff.

Services were given just ten days' notice before the implementation of the new ERO rates. They could not even apply for the additional funding until the day those rates took effect. No graduate funding was provided. As one manager said, we cannot compete because the reality is that qualified early years graduates are choosing not to enter this sector at all. It is far too easy for graduates to pivot into teaching or take SNA roles as those roles offer better pay, shorter hours and 14 weeks off a year. Even if we reach pay parity, early years educators will never have those additional benefits. We are losing them faster than we can recruit them or replace them.

The Government talks about creating new places through the building blocks scheme. When we have 40,000 children under the age of three on waiting lists, those places barely make a dent. The real question I would have on those places is how they are going to be staffed. Providers across the country are saying the same thing. They have space to expand and they have waiting lists stretching past 100 children, but they simply cannot find the staff. Services are closing, especially baby rooms for children under the age of 12 months - we have seen this a lot - because they cannot keep them staffed.

Early Childhood Ireland said it very clearly when it stated the 2026 budget missed an opportunity. Yes, €125 million was added, but it falls short of what is needed to bring the system to what it truly needs to be for the children, the families and the educators. We need meaningful reform, not piecemeal schemes and press releases. We need a public childcare model that is properly funded, properly staffed and accessible to every family; urban and rural, rich and poor. We need to stop talking about childcare places as if they exist in isolation from the people who actually make them possible: the educators, overwhelmingly women, who deserve decent pay, respect and stability. This is not just an economic issue; it is a matter of gender equality, of community survival and of giving every child in Ireland the best possible start in life. Childcare cannot be another broken promise; it must be the foundation of a fairer, more equal Ireland.I have to say I completely reject the amendment put forward by the other side of the House. It is crazy to stand up and say how brilliant the Government is. It is giving extra money, but it is not looking at the fundamental side of it. It can throw as much money as it wants at this situation, but until it has the staff to take up those positions, and unless it looks after the staff it will not be able to make more places.