Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1994. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the date on which she will publish an action plan for the reform of the early education and childcare sector; and if she has been provided with an update on the consultation and-or a draft of the plan to date. [46657/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government outlines the commitment to "undertake a broad consultation and publish a detailed Action Plan to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education and care system". Work is under way to develop this Action Plan which will be informed by stakeholder consultation.

My Officials are at an advanced stage of the planning phase for this work, including determining the scope of the Action Plan, in the context of existing Plans (such as Nurturing Skills the Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare 2022-2028, the National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028 and the First 5 Implementation Plan 2023-2025) and new Plans in development (such as the Action Plan for Administrative and Regulatory Simplification, the National Plan to Support Irish Language Provision in Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, and the First 5 Implementation Plan 2026-2028) as well as the ongoing work to review the legislative and regulatory framework for school-age childcare.

My Officials are also examining available research and data that will inform this Action Plan including findings from recently published reviews of the ECCE programme and the Access and Inclusion Model.

Finally Officials are examining how recent consultations with stakeholders in the sector can inform the design of the broad consultation process that is committed to in the Programme for Government, having regard to ensuring the voices of children and families, educators and practitioners, providers and other stakeholders within the sector are taken into account.

While work on developing the Action Plan is ongoing, we are already taking initial steps to deliver on key commitments in the Programme for Government including the reduction of early learning and childcare costs for parents, with the introduction of maximum fee caps for all Partner Services in Core Funding this month. The fee freeze will remain in place for all Partner Services with fees below these caps. This is an important step towards the reduction of early learning and childcare fees to €200 per month. Under the new fee caps, the highest possible fees will be no more than €295 per week for a full-day place of 40-50 hours per week. Once the National Childcare Scheme subsidy is taken into account, the maximum fee for a parent in this situation will be less than €200 per week.