Cost of Living Issues
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-18
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

It is a very interesting point. This week, the Minister, Deputy Foley, took a very important step forward in publishing the first instalment of the action plan on childcare. That has a number of areas on which she is endeavouring to move including on the issue of staffing and pay but also in trying to provide maximum fee caps starting with lower income families. Next year has to be about publishing a comprehensive plan that gets us from here to the destination envisaged in the programme for Government of €200 per month per child. We know how to do that. What we need to know is how we do it. In addition, we need to make sure the system has enough places and staff. The Deputy made the point that one size does not fit all. There is not a one-size-fits-all model in relation to childcare. The parent has to have choice – that is really important – but even in a country as geographically small as Ireland there can be regional and local differences and providing a system that is flexible enough to understand that will be part of the challenge. Good measures have been taken this year, including the funding in capital for state interventions in some of these and 2026 will see the substantive plan.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-18