Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

Let us not undermine them just for the sake of chasing other people for votes and for popularity.
In respect of childcare, the Government is very involved in childcare and the State is very involved in childcare in a variety of ways in terms of subsidies, in terms of frozen fees and in terms of investment, capital investment in private and community childcare as well as yesterday announcing a new State childcare capital investment programme which will significantly increase childcare places over the coming years.
We understand the pressures that households and families are under in respect of access to childcare and the cost of childcare, but we have looked at it on a number of fronts in terms of fees, in terms of investment and expansion, in terms of the workforce and in terms of significantly increasing wages for those working in childcare. We acknowledge there is more to do in that regard. In 2024, we saw a five-year high in new services opening and a five-year low in pre-school closures. About 357 services opened, 131 closed. That is a net increase of 226. That positive momentum continued in 2025. Data to the end of November last year showed about 372 openings and 122 closures, which is a net increase of 250.
The growth is being matched by rising participation. The number of children using early learning and childcare has grown by 35% between 2020 and 2025. Looking at the CSO data, for example, childcare prices have been falling on aggregate across the entire country. Different parts of the country would be higher than others in cities in particular but there is a broader story to be told. The situation is that we do work with childcare providers. It is challenging and there are tensions obviously, as there were particularly when we sought to limit fees. There has been huge investment to enable that to happen. The national childcare scheme supports about 277,000 children in 2026, which is 27,000 more than last year. Income-assessed subsidy thresholds under the childcare scheme will be increased to €34,000 for lower income households and €68,000 for the upper threshold.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21