Social Enterprise Sector
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-14
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Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central

The important point is that there is a commitment by the Government. I share the Deputy's confidence in terms of the capacity of social enterprises to deliver. I will have that conversation next week, but it would be fair to say that we are seeing a co-ordinated response from the Government. We are tackling the key issues. There is a deficit in some places around the provision of community childcare places. In saying that, I do not agree with the Deputy in every respect. I do not share her view on the for-profit issue around home help, which was one example given by the Deputy. In my area of Cork city, home help is being provided by people through the HSE co-ordinator there. Phenomenal work is being done. I will talk to the Deputy again about it. We are committed to ensuring that people have access to childcare and community childcare places. I will talk to her ahead of my meeting next week with the two gentlemen in question. However, the important point is that, as the Deputy knows, we have done a census in the social enterprise space.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-14