Early Childhood Care and Education
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-23
============================================================

Emer Currie (FG), Dublin West

I thank the Minister. I know she is not responsible for this and it is something that has really come to light. The legal implications of the valuation tribunal and a case in the High Court have had an impact since 2024 but there is an urgency about this. Legislation seems to be required. I have worked on legislation. Will the Minister consider working with me on that to deal with this in an urgent way? Part of that legislation also includes sessional services that offer 30 minutes of care to support parents with flexibility but they are being penalised for it. As part of that legislation, I have included that if they operate those 30 minutes at ECCE rates of €4.60 per hour, they too should be exempt. This is affecting services in four counties but it is coming to more counties. I have seen bills ranging from €1,000 to €10,000 for ECCE-only services. These services are 100% Government-funded. Why would the Government give them funding to operate and be viable and then, through another arm of the State, charge them commercial rates?

---

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/2026-06-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-23