The programme for Government outlines an ambitious plan to progressively reduce the cost of childcare to €200 per month, and commits to a review and increase of core funding, a reduction in the administrative burden on providers, capital investment to build State-owned childcare facilities and so much more. What steps has the Minister taken to progress these actions? Will she outline what plans are currently in motion?

I thank the Minister for her reply. The Social Democrats believe that solving the systemic problems facing the childcare sector in Ireland will not happen by doing more of the same. A triple threat is facing the sector. We cannot ignore that any longer. A dearth of places faces children and young people. There is a real capacity issue in many counties. There is also a lack of affordability for parents. The third key piece is very much the issue of compensation and benefits for a sector that is providing such a cruc…

The scale of what the Government is proposing, and what parents are demanding and what the sector deserves, is very significant. To see that type of growth and investment requires strategic cross-party thinking on this. I wrote to the Minister a couple of weeks ago proposing that we establish a special select time-bound committee, páistecare, which would perform a similar role to and take an approach like that of Sláintecare, to spell out the vision for the future of childcare and early education in Ireland. There …

I thank the Minister of State for being here. The community sports facilities fund, CSFF, is seen by clubs and groups throughout this country as a vital cog in the revenue raising machine, specifically when it comes to development or expansion works that sports clubs might require in order to grow. I know that in County Kildare, the fund is very much relied upon for the development of pitches, clubhouses and other relevant infrastructure. In 2024, the Government stated that it allocated more than €250 million to co…

I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate that. It ultimately boils down to governance. When we are talking about such significant sums of money given to wonderful groups that are based in our communities and doing important work, these issues will be rare. At the same time, we may see evidence of or signposts towards grave concerns in terms of the end product. The Minister of State mentioned spot checks. I will not pin him to it now but I would appreciate if he and his Department would consider examining the pro…

I thank the Minister of State.

The Minister of State is half a minute over time.

The Government put on paper its commitment to progressively reducing the cost of childcare to €200 per month through the national childcare scheme. As the Tánaiste knows, young families are desperately struggling to get a place, and if they do they face crippling costs. Our childcare and early years education sector is in a precarious situation with regard to recruitment and retention. I hope the Government is considering pay parity with their colleagues in education for early years workers. The Tánaiste is on the …

Our water system in Kildare is failing many of us, and too regularly. I was a member of Kildare County Council between 2019 and 2024. Over those five years, a number of issues - housing, roads, climate, public transport, young people services and water - arose on a consistent basis. The anger, frustration and utter dismay felt by Kildare residents about water outages is palpable. No one is immune. Residents in Celbridge, Primrose Hill and Hazelhatch have experienced gruelling outages. They have had enough. Leixlip …

I sincerely thank the Minister of State for the detailed reply. It is really helpful and appreciated. He can see himself that when we see a list, it is felt individually but when looked at collectively, it is something of a structural issue. That is point I am trying to raise today. The overall demand, when the population increases to such a degree, means we will see infrastructure start to creak overall. I really appreciate that comprehensive reply and I am struck by recent comments from the chair of Irish Water, …

I was a professional youth worker for many years. I have spoken about this with the Minister of State in the House previously. I will jump at any opportunity to speak about young people's lives and experiences. I just hope that there is nobody in charge of or responsible for youth justice or youth crime scratching their heads as to why we are where we are in society. It is fairly straightforward, actually. Without trying to sound too simplistic, young people's behaviour, circumstances and consequences are caused by…

It is Question No. 10.

Okay.

I will start by taking the opportunity to wish both the Minister and Minister of State very well in their new and exciting portfolios. I wish Deputy Lawless well in particular, as he is a constituency colleague. I was delighted to hear the news and really wish him the very best in his role. I wish to ask the Minister about his plans with regard to investment in student accommodation in Maynooth. Are there any plans for investment there and what is the extent of his communications with the university and the Higher …

I am a very proud former student of Maynooth University and I also worked there for a number of years. I was also a councillor representing the Clane-Maynooth municipal district. The Minister will be well aware that there is something quite unique about Maynooth in terms of the student town. The population essentially doubles during term time. The student accommodation issue is not isolated to students benefitting in the primary case but directly impacts everything else, in terms of living, working and growing up i…

I have one more supplementary question but do not expect the Minister to be able to answer it today. Given the uniqueness of Maynooth, would the Minister consider a working group, involving representatives of the Department, the council, the HSE and others, to sit around the table to get the sustainability of this development right? Maynooth is a decarbonised town and there are lots of different and very important stakeholders at play with regard to the development of Maynooth. It might work really well in terms of…

It could be a pilot project.

I am conscious of time, Deputy. We are just out of time. I will give the final word to the Minister before we move on to the next item.

For the information of Members present, we cannot take supplementary questions on priority questions. Apologies to Members.

Four Members have indicated they would like to come in with a supplementary comment. I ask them to be really mindful of their time and to keep their contributions nice and short. They have a maximum of 30 seconds each.