Childcare: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-23 ============================================================ Nessa Cosgrove (LAB), Labour Panel Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I thank the Fianna Fáil Senators for bringing the motion forward. I know how committed the Minister is to this area and to education in general. We have to welcome all of the positive developments we have seen in the early years sector but we must not exaggerate the positives at the expense of reality. On the ground, providers, educators and parents are still facing problems with accessibility, affordability and sustainability. As outlined in the motion and as everyone has brought up here today, early childhood provides an opportunity to shape and develop young minds and to support young families through the provision of excellent early years education. To achieve its potential, we need the early years and school-age care sector to be located in the communities in which children are living so that parents are not driving huge distances each day, adding to expensive commutes. That is what we are trying to address here. Care needs to be accessible. While addressing the cost to parents is needed, the answer is not to just keep increasing NCS subsidies to parents. While I admit that this reduces fees, it is also puts more and more of the State's money into the pockets of chains owned by multinational multimillion and multibillion euro corporations. I have to raise this issue because, unfortunately, there is money to be made in childcare. Care needs to be affordable but the outsourcing of some of the State's responsibility to the private sector has delivered a sector that could be on the brink of collapse. I know that is not what the Minister intends with the work she is putting in. While small independent providers, both community and private, struggle to make ends meet, vast corporate chains are making vast profits. The sector still struggles to attract educators and will continue to do so unless their qualifications and potential are recognised. While the recent employment regulation order agreement, which will see minimum rates of pay for graduate centre managers rise to €21.55, is to be welcomed, it is still a long away off the €29.38 per hour paid to newly qualified primary school teachers. Early Childhood Ireland has been calling for pay parity between national school teachers and graduate early years educators for over a year. It is time for the Government to put a date on pay parity for educators. It is the only way to attract graduates into a workforce that has historically suffered from exploitation. Care needs to be sustainable. Without stabilising the workforce, sustainability and accessibility will continue to be problems for families as small community-based providers, both private and non-profit, are forced to close their doors. As a rural representative, I know this hits rural communities particularly hard. This is what I want to bring up. City and county childcare committees have played a crucial role in ensuring sustainability in the sector and are responsible for delivering Government policy. I have to ask the question: why are the CEOs of large corporate chains also sitting on the boards of certain childcare committees? That is not happening in my area. I want to make that very clear. However, they also sit on joint labour committee. Why should the CEOs of multimillion euro businesses owned by multimillion euro corporate funds be deciding the rates that low-paid early years educators are paid? We have to question this. I have to call it out. Who is delivering this Government policy and who is directing it? There is a clear conflict of interest at play in certain childcare committees in other parts of the country. The relevant authorities, including the Charities Regulator, need to examine this issue and the question of how long people can stay on boards. We need a trusted, functioning and State-delivered early years education sector. Like other branches of our education system, it should provide an excellent service that families can rely on. I know the Minister has looked into this but I urge her to look again. There is an influx of corporations within this sector. The governance of childcare committees should be looked at. --- 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/seanad/2026-09-23/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-23