Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-22
============================================================

Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I thank Deputy Currie for raising this issue. I acknowledge her work as a vocal advocate for parents and providers and for getting this whole area of childcare right. I think that with all that went on in the world, perhaps it did not get as much attention this week as it merited. We took a very significant step forward this week with the capital investment for public facilities in relation to childcare and I thank the Minister, Deputy Foley, for that too.
The issue the Deputy has raised is an important issue because ECCE has been transformational. We all see it. We see it in our own children and we see it in our schools. Children are going into schools so much better prepared, educationally but also from a child development point of view. We do have the commitment in the programme for Government to amend eligibility criteria for ECCE. I take the point the Deputy makes in relation to the loss of time that a child might experience. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Foley, to provide a timeline for when we intend to progress that commitment.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:32+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-22