Catherine Callaghan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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176. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality to provide a predicted timeline on the delivery of reducing the cost of childcare to €200 per month per child; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61428/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I have committed to reduce monthly fees to €200 over the lifetime of the Government. The steps in achieving this ambition over the coming years will be set out in the Action Plan on Accessible, High Quality, Affordable Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, which the Department is continuing to develop.

In line with the commitment in the Programme for Government, the Action Plan will be informed by a broad consultation process. I will provide further detail on the Action Plan and the consultation process at the earliest opportunity.

In the immediate term, the investment of €1.48bn secured in the 2026 budget for early learning and care and school-age childcare will allow the Department to build on recent progress in the gradual reduction of fees for parents, while also supporting supply and the quality of provision.

Budget 2026 enables Core Funding to continue to support fee-control measures and will also allow for growth in the sector. The allocation for Core Funding in 2026 will ensure fees remain at 2021 levels for a majority of providers. As well as this, there will be new maximum fee caps set to reduce costs for families paying the highest fees across the country. Further details of the new, lower maximum fee caps will be announced in the coming months.

The 2026 allocation for Core Funding will also support implementation of the recently announced Employment Regulation Orders, which led to a 10% increase in the minimum rate of pay for educators from 13 October.

There will also be enhancements in Year 5 of Core Funding to improve pay for educators and school age childcare practitioners with implementation of new Employment Regulation Orders.

Capital funding is also being made available in 2026 for the sector.

Further steps will be detailed in the Action Plan, which will look at affordability, access and quality of the early learning and care and school-age childcare system.

These three attributes – affordability, accessibility and quality – are closely connected and the ways in which they interact is complex.

It will be essential that we make progress in all three areas in parallel in order to deliver on our vision.

Officials are working on an integrated approach to minimise the risk of unintended consequences and to identify opportunities to address multiple policy challenges at the same time.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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177. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the timeframe in which she intends to deliverchildcare costs of €10 per day. [61899/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I have committed to reduce monthly fees to €200 over the lifetime of the Government. The steps in achieving this ambition over the coming years will be set out in the Action Plan on Accessible, High Quality, Affordable Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, which the Department is continuing to develop.

In line with the commitment in the Programme for Government, the Action Plan will be informed by a broad consultation process. I will provide further detail on the Action Plan and the consultation process at the earliest opportunity.

In the immediate term, the investment of €1.48bn secured in the 2026 budget for early learning and care and school-age childcare will allow the Department to build on recent progress in the gradual reduction of fees for parents, while also supporting supply and the quality of provision.

Budget 2026 enables Core Funding to continue to support fee-control measures and will also allow for growth in the sector. The allocation for Core Funding in 2026 will ensure fees remain at 2021 levels for a majority of providers. As well as this, there will be new maximum fee caps set to reduce costs for families paying the highest fees across the country. Further details of the new, lower maximum fee caps will be announced in the coming months.

The 2026 allocation for Core Funding will also support implementation of the recently announced Employment Regulation Orders, which led to a 10% increase in the minimum rate of pay for educators from 13 October.

There will also be enhancements in Year 5 of Core Funding to improve pay for educators and school age childcare practitioners with implementation of new Employment Regulation Orders.

Capital funding is also being made available in 2026 for the sector.

Further steps will be detailed in the Action Plan, which will look at affordability, access and quality of the early learning and care and school-age childcare system.

These three attributes – affordability, accessibility and quality – are closely connected and the ways in which they interact is complex.

It will be essential that we make progress in all three areas in parallel in order to deliver on our vision.

Officials are working on an integrated approach to minimise the risk of unintended consequences and to identify opportunities to address multiple policy challenges at the same time.

Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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178. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the level of funding allocated in Budget 2026 to support the negotiation and implementation of a new early years employment regulation order; the timeline for communicating this allocation to the Early Years Joint Labour Committee; the steps being taken to ensure pay negotiations proceed without delay, given ongoing recruitment and retention challenges and the risk of missing the 1 September implementation date, as occurred previously; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [61621/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Pay is one of a number of issues impacting the early learning and care and school-age childcare workforce. The level of pay for early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners does not reflect the value of their work for children, families, society and the economy.

Although the Government is the primary funder of the sector, it is not the employer and cannot directly set wages or conditions.

The Joint Labour Committee is the formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates, which are set down in Employment Regulation Orders and is independent in its functions.

As recently announced, the Minister of State for Employment, Small Business and Retail Alan Dillon has signed a new Employment Order for the sector.

The Orders commenced on 13 October 2025. They provide for an average of 10% increase to minimum hourly rates of pay. It is estimated that 67% of those working in the sector will see their wages increase as a result of the new minimum pay rates.

Outcomes from the Joint Labour Committee process are supported by Government through Core Funding. In this programme year 2025/26 Core Funding has increased by 6% to approximately €350 million with an additional €45 million in ring-fenced Core Funding provided to support early learning and care services in meeting the increased cost of minimum pay rates in the sector.

The Government remains committed to continue to implement Employment Regulation Orders to attract and retain early years educators and to making available a similar sum in 2026 to support a further future round of pay improvements negotiations through the Joint Labour Committee process. The final details of the allocation are still being determined. They will be communicated to the Joint Labour Committee and the sector as soon as they are finalised.

The timeline for any future negotiations of Employment Regulation Orders is a matter, solely, for the Joint Labour Committee, subject to the provisions of the Industrial Relations Acts. Although it is preferable that the Employment Regulation Orders are in effect in time for the start of the programme year for state funded early Learning and childcare schemes/programmes, the negotiations of the Joint Labour Committee are independent of the Department and therefore can only be determined by Committee itself.