Shane Curley (Fianna Fail)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire, an Teachta Foley.

Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)
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I move:

That Seanad Éireann:

condemns: - Budget 2026, which breaks the pre-election promises of the Government parties to deliver childcare to parents for €200 a month; acknowledges: - the high costs of childcare that continue to exist with some parents paying over €1,000 per month;

- that access to high quality early learning and care is fundamental to children’s wellbeing and development;

- the vital role played by Early Years Educators in delivering quality care and learning experiences;

- that quality provision depends on a skilled, supported, and fairly remunerated workforce;

- the challenges that exist in the Early Years Sector, including for parents trying to afford and access childcare places and for educators when it comes to pay and terms and conditions;

- the thousands of children on waiting lists for childcare places;

- the serious deficiencies in capacity in our childcare sector;

- the Early Years Educators who have been underpaid and undervalued by successive Governments; calls on Government to reconsider its Budget 2026 provisions and make the investment necessary to: - deliver childcare to parents for €10 per day;

- ensure improved terms and conditions for childcare staff to address the retention and recruitment crisis and expand the capacity of the sector.

Nicole Ryan (Sinn Fein)
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I second the motion.

Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)
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I am sharing time my Senator Ryan. Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I thank her for making sure she was here. I know we delayed it for a week so that she could. I appreciate that she is here for the motion. It is a short motion with a number of asks. I want to deal with the first one on the cost of childcare. Many families are still paying very high costs. As a result of those high costs, some are choosing not to return to work because it is not worth their while. That primarily affects women - not always, but primarily. I hear of families still paying, depending on where they are in the country, up to €1,500 a month. I think the average is €800, which is still high. It is like a second mortgage. High costs are a barrier to formal childcare. They are a barrier to female labour market participation. They see an increase in child poverty.

Last year, prior to the alternative budget, we in Sinn Féin announced that we would advocate for €10 per child per day in childcare. This is something that was taken up by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. That is to be welcomed. I know it was something in election manifestos of all the main parties. However, there were no reductions in this budget toward the cost of childcare. It is something I thought would have started in this budget at least and continued over the next two years to reduce the cost. It is more challenging for families who are on a lower income to access childcare when the costs are significant. While I will acknowledge there have been subsidies and reductions, it does not actually benefit all of the families.

Some countries, like Norway and Finland in particular, have led the way where they have a publicly led childcare system. That has seen costs to parents fall dramatically. It is something that we should be looking at in this country as well. I note that there are a number of private operators that are not in core funding. Therefore, the families accessing those services are not benefiting from the reductions that they get through the national childcare scheme and core funding. What are the barriers or what can we do to ensure that all private operators are brought on board?Some were in core funding and left it. Some of that is to do with the bureaucracy involved or the fact fees were frozen while they were still quite low. Some parents choose to have their children minded by a childminder. While they cannot access core funding, a lot of them are not accessing the national childcare scheme. I think there are fewer than 150 registered nationally. We need to examine why that is and how we can bring more childminders on board so we can reduce fees.

Throughout last year’s general election campaign the then Taoiseach, Deputy Harris made continual references to a public childcare model being a key priority of Fine Gael were it to be returned to government. The programme for Government seems to have stepped away from this and instead commits the Government to "...undertake a broad consultation and publish a detailed Action Plan to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education ... system ..." and add State-led capacity where needed. I do not think that consultation has started. Maybe the Minister could update us on that because I am not aware of anything having begun and it needs to begin as soon as possible. I urge the Government to examine the public model and investigate it. I am not saying it is a simple case of rolling something out as there are different models in other countries that could be looked at for ideas. If we have a public model of childcare that includes early education and after-school care, it will deliver affordability for parents and families and will give sustainability to providers, but it will also give quality for children and staff.

On our early educators, as of their latest wage increase, they are on €15 per hour. The national minimum wage is due to rise in January to €14.50. That means our early educators, some of whom have level 7 and level 8 degrees, are only receiving 75 cent per hour above the national minimum wage. We need to look at better pay for them. Many of them are leaving the sector - and that is one of the issues with capacity that I will deal with further later – but they are leaving and going into teaching or into schools as SNAs. We need highly-qualified personnel within our childcare model to ensure we deliver the quality our children need.

A public model of childcare will guarantee access, quality and affordability in every community. I want to ensure every child gets fairness in our childcare model regardless of their parents’ income or address. We want to see every child accessing high-quality early childhood education and care. It is achievable. As I referenced, other countries are doing it and we need to look at that and ensure we are delivering it here as well. We have a public healthcare system. It might not always work as we want it to work, but it is there and it works pretty well in most cases. We also have a public education system and that works really well, so we need to model early childhood education on that. It will mean long-term planning as it is not going to happen overnight. We need to look at capital planning for areas where there is need. We need to integrate better with our schools, our communities and our local authorities. We also need to embed Irish-medium provision as a core element within early childhood education. We should ensure there is outdoor play and inclusivity in all of them as standard and recognise early years as part of our public education continuum. If we invest in childcare, we are investing in children, in equality and in the future economy. Every euro spent on quality early education will return multiple times in social and economic benefits in the years to come.

I mentioned capacity and there are issues with that. In some cases, it is a shortage of physical space and in others, it is a shortage of staff. The building blocks scheme is a good one but it is for existing providers to extend their premises or buy or construct new buildings. Could this not be extended to new providers in the system and to include existing buildings? We have a huge level of vacancy, especially in our towns and villages. What better place to put our childcare facilities than embedded in a village or a town? These buildings have been constructed. Some of them are not in bad condition and could easily and very quickly be turned around to be suitable for the provision of early education. It would be a much faster solution. In the budget there was talk about extending schools and community centres, but the Minister was previously Minister for Education and she knows there are schools waiting for additional classrooms that are urgently needed, yet they are left waiting years for those to progress through the building section of the Department. We need classrooms for children with additional needs who cannot be educated locally because those classrooms and that space is not available. I cannot see how that is going to address the capacity issues that currently exist.

Senator Kyne submitted an amendment to the motion. Part of it "acknowledges that there continues to be evidence of some families having difficulty finding appropriate places at a cost that is affordable". We have 40,000 children on waiting lists. How can the Senator say it is only some families? It is a huge waiting list. I have referenced the cost. Nothing was done in the budget about the cost for families. Nothing was done in the budget about pay for educators. We need those issues tackled, as well as the capacity issue, to ensure every child has an opportunity to avail of early childhood education and that parents are able to work after maternity leave and are not coming into my office in tears because they cannot go back to work and must stay at home and look after the children because they cannot find suitable childcare.

Nicole Ryan (Sinn Fein)
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I support this motion, which is not just welcome but urgently needed. Across the constituency of Cork North-West, from Millstreet to Macroom and Charleville to Ballyvourney, I hear stories from parents and providers alike. Families are under pressure. Parents are going out to work to pay for childcare. In many cases, their monthly fees are higher than their mortgage. For a young mother in Kanturk or father in Newmarket that means going to work not to get ahead or save for the future, but simply to keep their place in the crèche. That is the reality of what is happening. Spaces are scarce everywhere but in rural Ireland it is even worse. Mothers who have only just found out they are pregnant are putting their unborn children on waiting lists, hoping and praying that by the time the maternity leave ends a space might open up. That level of anxiety and planning years in advance is not normal, healthy or fair. Families are trapped in a system that simply does not work. While there are stay-at-home fathers, it is mostly women, as always, who pay the highest price. Too many are being forced to step back or step away from their careers entirely because it does not make financial sense to work when all their earnings go straight to paying childcare fees. This motion is welcome because it faces the truth head-on. It recognises the current model is broken and is failing families, educators and children alike. What is needed is not another glossy press release but real structural change, like investment in a public model that delivers €10 per day childcare, fair pay for early educators and capacity where families actually live.

Senator Kyne’s amendment is quite extraordinary. It reads like the Government is patting itself on the back while parents are barely hanging on. It speaks of unprecedented growth in funding, major achievements, award-winning models and pathways set out in the programme for Government. It speaks not once to the lived experience of families struggling right now. Government Senators can quote all the percentages and policy frameworks they like but none of that will change the fact parents are paying well over €1,000 per month for a service they can hardly find. None of it helps a mother who is driving 40 minutes each way because every crèche close to her home is full. None of it helps the early years educator earning less than a supermarket cashier, despite holding a degree and caring for our most precious little ones. Senator Kyne’s amendment might make for a nice Department briefing but it completely ignores what is happening on the ground. It is detached and frankly insulting to those who live with this crisis every day.We are not here to congratulate the Government on how well it thinks it is doing, we are here to tell the truth about how far short it is falling. If things were working as well as the amendment suggests, we would not have parents in tears at kitchen tables wondering how they will pay next month's bill.

Childcare should be a public service and not a private burden. It should enable parents, especially mothers, to participate fully in work and not push them out of it. It should give every child the best start in life and not just those of parents who can afford the fees. The motion is about fairness, equality and the future of our communities. Families are not asking for luxuries, they are asking for the basics of an affordable place, a qualified educator and a bit of stability. The truth is they are still waiting. Instead of patting ourselves on the back we need to get on with the work. We need to build a public model of early years education that treats childcare as essential infrastructure which does not force parents to choose between a career and their children, and finally delivers on all of the promises that have been awaited far too long.

Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Fianna Fail)
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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."

Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael)
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I second the amendment.

Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Fianna Fail)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire chun an tSeanaid. Tá mé an-bhuíoch di as a bheith anseo anocht. I am honoured to speak today on a matter that touches the heart of every community in Ireland, which is early learning and childcare. Fianna Fáil welcomes this debate and our commitment is clear. It is to make Ireland a great place to raise a family, where every child is given an equal start in life and equal opportunities throughout their journey. We all know the early years of a child's life are the most formative. They shape not only the child's future but the future of our society. This is why investing in early learning and childcare is not just a policy decision, it is a moral imperative.

Since 2020 we have doubled State investment in childcare. This is not only a statistic, it is a transformation. Families now pay 36% less for early learning and childcare than they did in 2022. This is real relief for parents and real support for providers. It means more children can access quality care and more parents can return to work or education with peace of mind, if they wish to do so. In budget 2026 we have allocated €1.48 billion to the sector. This funding will support an additional 35,000 children under the national childcare scheme, bringing the total to more than 286,000. This is a 14% increase. This is proof of our commitment to access, affordability and quality.

We know that investment alone is not enough. Pay and conditions in the sector have long been a challenge. This is why we warmly welcome the adoption of the new employment regulation orders. These will raise minimum hourly wages for early years educators and school age childcare practitioners, some by as much as €2 per hour. Approximately 67% of staff will see their wages increase. This is not only about fairness, it is about recognising the vital role these professionals play in shaping our children's futures.

Let me pause here to acknowledge the educators, the people who every morning greet our children, nurture their curiosity and help them to grow socially and emotionally. They are not just workers, they are builders of our futures and they deserve to be valued, respected and fairly compensated.

We are also expanding support for children with disabilities through the award-winning access and inclusion model, AIM. In 2026 up to 9,000 children will benefit, with AIM now extending beyond the ECCE hours. This will ensure that every child, regardless of ability, can participate meaningfully in early education. Inclusion is not luxury; it is a necessity. Our equal start programme is another pillar of progress. It targets disadvantage with universal and tailored supports, including nutrition programmes, language development and inclusion training. In 2026 the number of priority settings receiving targeted supports will rise to 820. This means more Traveller and Roma children, more children with language delays and more families facing hardship will be supported in a meaningful way.

We are not stopping there. The Government is developing a forward planning and delivery unit to explore public provision alongside private and community providers. With €36 million in capital funding we will begin acquiring buildings for State-led childcare, which is an historic step forward. This will allow us to respond to gaps in provision and ensure that no child is left behind due to geography or affordability. We remain focused on affordability. Our goal is to reduce fees to €200 per month. Budget 2026 introduces new maximum fee caps to help families facing the highest costs. This is a key step forward towards the target. For many families this could mean the difference between struggling and thriving. We also continue to support the early childhood care and education programme, which benefits more than 105,000 children annually. Uptake rates exceed 96% and data shows that more than 40% of families would not have been able to send their child to a preschool without it. This is the power of public investment.

While challenges do remain, the pathway is clear. We are building a system that is affordable, high quality and accessible. We are investing in our children. We are supporting our educators and we are strengthening our communities. Let us continue this journey together with ambition, compassion and determination. When we invest in our children, we invest in the future of Ireland.

Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister to the Chamber and I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion. About six years ago if I were told I had to stand up to talk about childcare, I would not have had a clue what I was talking about. Now that I have two boys who are five and three I feel like I am an expert on childcare, the cost of childcare and, particularly, the thing I learned very quickly, childcare providers. The two providers I know very well are the Play and Learn creche in Clonmel and the Busy Bees after-school service in Grange. The staff are educators and teachers and they are not just minders. My perception six or seven years ago was that a child is just put in and minded, they play away, hopefully they are safe and then they come home and all is good but they learn so much it is phenomenal.

My youngest son Daniel has just started the ECCE and the education he is receiving before he starts primary school is phenomenal. When we speak about funding childcare and places we also need to recognise in the long term that the people who work in childcare are, in my view, teachers. They are no different from primary school teachers or secondary school teachers. From my experience with my two boys, the staff provide an education. I genuinely think my boys are geniuses and it has nothing to do with what I have done as a parent. I give the childcare staff all the credit for it.

On a serious point, today's discussion is welcome. It is very good and important to recognise there are real challenges for people. There are real challenges in terms of costs, particularly here in the capital city. There are certainly challenges in terms of places. The second person you need to tell that a child is due in nine months' time is the owner of a childcare service. What I have realised in the past six years, and what I have certainly noticed, is that the cost has dramatically reduced. When we speak about costs Senator Tully is right that there are people in the country who are spending an awful lot of money, up to €1,500, on childcare. This is a startling amount but it is not the vast majority of people in the country. The fees people pay now have dramatically reduced compared with four or five years ago. To take my example, if I had my two children now, childcare per month would cost less than half of €1,500 and this is the same for anyone in Tipperary. Four or five years ago the cost would have been over €1,000. It has reduced dramatically but this is not to take away from the fact there are problems with the cost and certainly problems in terms of access.One of the big changes I have noticed in rural Ireland, and I presume Senator Nicole Ryan has noticed this as well, is that a number of primary schools have taken on after-school care. This has made a dramatic difference for parents because when their children can attend school and avail of after-school care in the same school, they can stay at work until 5 o'clock. My wife and I could not do it. Either my wife or I would have to collect our child at 2.30 p.m., which just is not possible if you have a full day's work. The increase in after-school care has made a big difference.

There have been significant cost reductions over the last four or five years. Although there has not been a reduction this year, there has been an increase in funding of about €125 million. One of the main aspects of that increase in funding is that it allows for the building of new facilities. When we build new facilities, we reduce the cost and open up access. There is a long-term ambition to reach a cost of €200 a month, which hopefully can be done within the lifetime of this Government. If we do not have enough childcare places, however, parents cannot find providers to which to send their children and there is no point in having a maximum of €200 a month.

This is an important debate. If we are going to talk about childcare, we must recognise that a lot has been done in the last five or six years. Although a number of people are still struggling, an awful lot of people have seen the benefit over the last four or five years of the measures that have been taken by the Department in reducing costs, opening up access, setting up schemes that support people from disadvantaged areas and children with additional needs, and providing funding to educate those who want to work in this sector. All of these things will have a knock-on impact. As a Senator said at the start, a number of people who have worked in this sector, having been educated and trained to do so, have decided to leave because financially it is not viable for them to remain. I know the Minister has an action plan and I am interested in hearing its timeline. We need to have an action plan in place to ensure these teachers can see a long-term future and career in this sector. From my perspective, the work they do is phenomenal and that needs to be recognised by the State.

Shane Curley (Fianna Fail)
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Anois, an Seanadóir Joe Conway.

Sharon Keogan (Independent)
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We wish to share time and I would like to speak first.

Shane Curley (Fianna Fail)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

Sharon Keogan (Independent)
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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.

Joe Conway (Independent)
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I compliment our Sinn Féin colleagues in giving some oxygen to this much-pressed issue of childcare. A lot of the comments to date in this debate have been on the macro question. I have consulted my own resource team, notably my son and daughter-in-law and their 11-month-old daughter. We came up with some micro suggestions. I will instance the first problem that they identified. Parents currently face severe uncertainty and stress due to the scarcity of early childcare places. It is self-evident. Many of them have to apply to dozens of providers and often receive confirmation only weeks before the care is needed. This makes it nearly impossible for families to plan return-to-work dates or manage financial and logistical arrangements. The suggested reforms are as follows: first, to introduce a national childcare placement system or centralised waiting list database to increase transparency around availability; second, to require providers to confirm or release places at least three months in advance of the start date; and third, to provide regional and capacity planning and forecasting to enable the Government to proactively expand places in areas where shortages are most acute.

Another reform that is needed involves identifying and guaranteeing continuity of funding and protection from sudden provider withdrawal. The problem is that when providers withdraw from the State's core funding scheme, parents are suddenly faced with large fee increases or must move their children, often mid-year, causing disruption and financial hardship. The suggested reforms in this respect that the Conway family came up with are as follows: to legislate to have a minimum funding stability period - of three years, for example - for any provider participating in the ECCE or core funding schemes; to require advance notice of at least six months be provided to parents and the Department before any provider can exit the scheme; to guarantee that families retain their subsidised rate for the duration of their child's placement, even if the provider later withdraws; and to create a continuity fund to protect parents from unexpected fee spikes caused by provider exits.

I am afraid I am out of time but I suspect that the Minister will hear more from me on this issue. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as a bheith ag éisteacht liom.

Shane Curley (Fianna Fail)
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Ceapaim go bhfuil an tAire ag iarraidh teacht isteach.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Shane Curley (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the guests of the Ceann Comhairle in the Gallery. It is great to have them in this evening. I call Senator Cosgrove.

Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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We will split the time.

Shane Curley (Fianna Fail)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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I welcome the Sinn Féin motion and I thank the party for bringing it forward. We all know very well the concerns about the cost of childcare and, as a parent of three children, I know they are very real. Childcare is an expensive business, and it should be. After all, we have highly qualified professional staff caring for our children, who are the most precious members of our society. This is not a service that can be delivered on the cheap and yet the system has been designed to deliver just that, a quality system on the cheap. It is delivered in the community sector through voluntary committees responsible for implementing increasingly complex and confusing schemes. In the private sector, it is done through the unpaid labour of small independent providers.

While the large corporate chains are making vast profits, small providers continue to struggle to make funding streams work for them. It is not like this crisis in childcare happened overnight. It has been like a runaway train for successive Fianna Fáil- and Fine Gael-led governments. The implementation of the third employment regulation order for the early years sector has steadily increased the basic pay per hour from €13 in 2022 to €15 this September. This was hard fought for and hard won. It was won by trade unions and workers on the ground. During this same period, the minimum wage has risen from €10.50 to €13.50 today and it will be increasing to €14.50 in January 2026. Obviously, I completely welcome the increase in the minimum wage, but how will a basic difference of 85 cent per hour attract people to choose a career in a highly rewarding but challenging sector? The reality is that there remains a recruitment and retention crisis in the sector and the crisis is deepening.

The prebudget submission from SIPTU identified a 25% turnover rate. High turnover rates-----

Shane Curley (Fianna Fail)
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Gabh mo leithscéal, tá an Dáil ag vótáil.

Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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That is fine.

Shane Curley (Fianna Fail)
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We will suspend the House for the duration of the vote until the Minister returns.

Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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Low pay is cited by 86% of early years educators as being the main reason for leaving the sector. Experienced early years educators, managers and even providers continue to leave the sector. Many choose to become special needs assistants, where the starting salary is €16.83 per hour - €1.30 above the base rate for an early years educator and €2.68 above the minimum wage. On the other hand, qualified national school teachers receive €44.67 per hour, almost three times the hourly rate of an early years educator. Is it any wonder that the early years sector loses a huge number of graduates to the primary education sector every year? Low wages continue to mean that there is a shortage of staff. We know that a shortage of staff results in a shortage of child places, especially in the baby and toddler rooms, where the staff-to-child ratio is much higher.

A shortage of child places means, as in the rest of the economy, that when demand outstrips supply, those providing these services can increase their price. Access to core funding, the ECCE, the NCS and other schemes work for many providers, but they are not working for others. It does suit some providers, particularly big chains, to leave core funding and increase fees to parents. Small providers do not have the resources to address pay and conditions on their own. Families do not have the capacity to pay the fees which would be required to address pay and conditions. The only body which has the capacity to make the investment required to make our early years sector fit for the future is the State. I am glad that there is going to be a commitment to moving toward this. Unfortunately, the budget left a lot of people disappointed because of the overpromising coming up to the election.

An additional cost that my colleagues in Sligo, particularly in the community sector, are concerned about is the cost of auto-enrolment. Like them, I fully welcome the introduction of auto-enrolment. Everyone is in favour of pensions, but how will this be paid for? The cost for a large community setting that I am involved with has been estimated to be €10,000 to €12,000. We are wondering how this will be paid. Is finance going to be made available for community sector providers and all independent early years providers? It is time to start to treat the early years sector as a serious and integral part of the education system, which is a public good.

Laura Harmon (Labour)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. It is a really important and timely debate that we are having on childcare. I welcome and support the Sinn Féin motion.

It is really hard for people working in the sector to stay in the sector. My friend and colleague, Councillor Ciara O'Connor, who works in Cork city, left the profession that she deeply loves because she could not afford to work in it any more in terms of the pay and conditions. She hopes one day that she can go back to it again, but at the minute, like many of her colleagues, she did not find it a viable profession, even though she is extremely qualified. They need to be treated and valued the same as other educators in the State. It is often those working in early years settings who pick up if children might have additional needs or if there is something going on at home that needs to be alerted. They are often at the coal face and front line of a child's development. We know the years from zero to five are so impactful for how the rest of someone's life will pan out. It is really disappointing that the pre-election promises of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to cap childcare costs at €200 per month have not been fulfilled. We need to work toward this reduction in costs for parents.

Just last night, I was speaking to a family who are paying €2,000 for childcare. It is more than their mortgage. I know from other parents that it is affecting how they plan for their families; for example, whether they can afford to have another child. We know a lot of providers are questioning whether they can afford to stay in the sector. We need to move towards a public model of childcare where waiting lists are minimal, where the service is of a high quality, where workers' pay and conditions are fair, and where it is sustainable for providers.

Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)
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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.

Shane Curley (Fianna Fail)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Deputy Buttimer is no stranger to Seanad Éireann.

Patricia Stephenson (Social Democrats)
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In the most recent general election Fine Gael promised to cap childcare costs at €200 per month per child, and it would do that within 100 days of the new Government. It also promised to create 30,000 new early learning places. It was a commitment made in a manifesto that I am sure was widely read by parents across the country. I can only imagine that now, two weeks after the budget, those parents must be feeling deeply disappointed and let down. Fianna Fáil made similar pledges of a €200 cap and measures to improve price transparency. These were not musings. They were not wishful thinking. They were explicit commitments made to voters. For families really struggling and banking on this reprieve from the huge outgoings they have on top of the already skyrocketing cost of living, this is a major blow. Despite commitments in manifestos, what we have instead are muddled, half-implemented caps, rising costs and many parents feeling shut out of affordable care. The media over the past two weeks have highlighted stories of childcare providers pulling out of schemes, of costs rising despite promises and of growing frustration among families who are worse off than they were this time last year. It is clear the childcare sector as it stands is not fit for purpose, and I have no hopes that the Government’s small interventions will make a massive change to that. Over 50 providers have already pulled out of the schemes. Some of them have now increased their fees by up to €360 per month, according to a recent article in The Journal. In fact, the whole article makes for incredibly grim reading.

Parents are faced with no choice but to pay up or leave their jobs because childcare is simply unaffordable. To put it briefly, it is a complete mess. I said in this Chamber before that we have instances of mothers - I have spoken to them - making decisions about whether to return to work who are forced to stay home to look after their kids. That is complete hypocrisy when we talk about women's empowerment and gender equality. Ireland has some of the highest childcare costs in Europe. The Government has its head in the sand when it comes to a lot of these issues. It is not a new issue either. This comes up time and again. We all hear from, and know, parents with no access to childcare who are facing crippling costs.

I will also touch on the issue of childcare workers. Senator Cosgrove has spoken substantially on this. We have childcare workers in the system who are highly trained, committed and doing an essential job. As we know, early childhood education is crucial and childcare workers are key. They are key in fostering development and in caring for our children, thus facilitating parents' ability to work in addition to that. Their pay, despite all of this, remains low in the context of their skill and the responsibility their roles demand. I acknowledge they recently got a modest pay increase. However, conditions in many facilities are precarious, with low wages, high turnover, long hours and inadequate support. We should be doing everything we can to keep childcare workers in the sector, but that is not what is happening. In fact, the challenges we have with SNA recruitment means we are seeing childcare workers being pulled out of the childcare system.

Meanwhile for parents we have childcare costs, which continue to take up an enormous share of income. For many, the cost of childcare is equivalent to paying rent or servicing part of a mortgage. Parents are often forced to choose between returning to work and staying at home, or between accepting often low-paid part-time work or absorbing unsustainable childcare bills. We need a radical reset of this sector. We need to bring it into the public sector. The Social Democrats believe that is the only sustainable way forward. I have tabled an amendment which calls for a public model of childcare which is universal, publicly funded and properly staffed with decent wages and, critically, is integrated into our education system. I know when the Minister was giving her statement she touched on the moves to integrate childcare into the existing education system. That needs to be prioritised. It is common sense. We need a public model of childcare that guarantees a place for every child, and which caps costs and genuinely treats early years professionals as the skilled educators they are. I stress that while this might sound utopian, it is common sense. It is about equity and economic pragmatism. While we rely on outsourcing this to sometimes incredible private sector providers, we will never meet the needs in the childcare sector, and we will be letting families and children down.

Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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Anois, we have the proposer of the motion, Senator Tully.

Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)
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First, I thank the Minister and Minister of State for their attendance, and everybody else who contributed to this debate. Our motion called for two things. The first concerned the cost and the other was to do with capacity within the system. Many people have made the point that the costs have reduced significantly. They have reduced for some, but not for all. There are still parents paying huge fees. Senator Harmon spoke about somebody paying €2,000. It is outrageous that any parent would have to do that. As it is, they are being forced to decide if they should give up work or studies or whatever it is, because they cannot afford to pay it. We need a system where all of the fees are capped, as was promised in the election last year when the Government said it would introduce €200 per month childcare fees. It has let a lot of people down as it now seems that will be over the course of the Government's term. That is not what the original promise was.

On capacity, there are two issues. One is to do with actual physical space. We are talking about new builds or extensions. They all take time. We need to be able to acquire vacant property now and have it restored. However, that is no good without the staff. Everybody has highly commended the early years educators, and I add to that. They are wonderful but they are not paid sufficiently for the job they do, and they are leaving in droves because of the cost of living. They cannot afford to live in the job they love and are qualified to do. They are leaving and taking up other positions. We need to treat this seriously and we need to treat it urgently. I recently heard of a couple who came over from India to take up paid positions. They came on work visas for highly qualified positions. They were settled here and starting work. They went to look for childcare and could not access it. They said they moved here from India to take up positions but they have no childcare. It was ridiculous.

Parents constantly say they find it difficult to find a place for a baby under one year of age, or even under two. We need to seriously look at extending parental leave. If you take paternity leave, maternity leave and parental leave together, it is not much short of a year. Why not extend it so at least the whole year is covered between the two parents so they can take the full year to care for the child at home and not lose money or wages?

My children attended a community creche when they were young. We do not have enough community creches. They are wonderful and operate as part of the social enterprise model. They are not based on profit. They are providing a service. Many of our private operators are only interested in profit and we need to get away from that model. We need our public model of childcare. For too long, childcare in Ireland has been treated as a private market issue rather than a public good, and that needs to change. I am disappointed with the amendment put forward by the Government and we will not be accepting it.

Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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We had one Senator who voted twice. The Senator shall remain nameless. The vote has been corrected.