Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-13
============================================================

Holly Cairns (SD), Cork South-West

He seems to think that plámásing the electorate and promising things is just part of electioneering. It is not. People believed the Taoiseach when he said there would be a reduction in childcare fees. People believed this Government when it promised to roll out a plan for a public model of childcare. I just hope that people watching will judge this Government not on its empty promises in the lead-up to the next election but on its actions now. The Taoiseach says I will not acknowledge progress and is talking about workers in this sector. Does he acknowledge that workers in the childcare sector have the same level of training and qualifications as other teachers but get paid minimum wage and in the summer months have to sign on? Where is the progress for workers in this sector? Does the Taoiseach acknowledge that without a public model of childcare, without any actual childcare at all for so many families, we will never reach gender equality and that this stifles women's careers? It blocks them from getting back into the workplace. The Taoiseach lists off his script of things there as if that is progress.

---

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/2026-05-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:03+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-13