Childcare Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-23
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Norma Foley (FF), Kerry

In the interests of clarity, we must be clear that after any election there is a negotiation with various parties to make up a Government. As part of that, a programme for Government is written down and committed to. Those are the plans which will be committed to over the lifetime of the Government. I was involved in the writing of the programme for Government. When that was being done, the commitment was clear. This Government involves a number of parties and individuals. The programme for Government lays out that over the lifetime of the Government, the cap of €200 will be achieved. There is no deviation in that regard. There is no equivocation. It was made clear when the Government was formed.
As already stated, there has been progress in terms of a reduction in costs for low-income families. The lower income threshold for the income-assessed subsidy has been increased from €26,000 to €34,000 in order to ensure that families with incomes below the relative poverty income line receive the maximum subsidy. There has also been an increase in the upper threshold.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-23