I thank the Minister for her statement and the documentation we have been provided with that details the elements of both Votes. I will focus my contribution on Vote 40 and raise some issues with what has been outlined and what the Minister outlined, much of which is welcome, particularly the increased budget for disability which we must acknowledge. It has been rising and that is welcome. That said, one of the key measures here is to progress the action plan for disability services, which is very important, but ve…

Listening to the contributions made on the Government side of the House, most of them sound like commentators. The waiting list for assessments of need did not increase overnight. This has been an issue for many years and the demand for an assessment of need or for disability services has been rising consistently. This is absolutely nothing new. I pay tribute to Cara Darmody and her dad, Mark. At 14 years of age, she has made a really valuable contribution to the debate around assessment of need and highlighted the…

I begin by also paying tribute to Cara Darmody, who is here in the Public Gallery with her dad Mark. At 14 years of age, she has made a really valuable contribution to the debate around assessment of need and to the reality of the difficulties that individuals and families face when it comes to accessing autism and disability supports. She has been a voice for children and for parents, and I want to take this opportunity to say "thank you" to Cara. Last week, the HSE provided me with the latest waiting list figures…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: recognises: — the challenges that exist in the Early Years Sector, including for parents trying to afford and access childcare places and for educators when it comes to pay and terms and conditions; — the thousands of children on waiting lists for childcare places; — the serious deficiencies in capacity in our Childcare Sector; — the high costs of childcare that continues to exist with some parents paying over €1,000 a month; and — the Early Years Educators who are underpaid and undervalu…

I am stunned by the amendment the Minister has tabled to the motion. The motion seeks nothing more than for the Government to implement what the Minister outlined in the programme for Government and seeks further information and detail on the Government's commitment to our early years sector in the programme for Government, and the Minister could not even support that. The amendment refers to the terms of reference for a consultation and a timeframe, meeting the Together for Public alliance before commencing with t…

I want to acknowledge the way the Minister went about making the rearrangements for this debate this morning and I thank her. Grace was 10 years old when she entered the foster care placement that is at the heart of the commission report. It was due to be a temporary placement in 1989. We cannot remind ourselves enough that she was a 10-year-old girl, a child, and she was without a voice. The failure began before Grace even entered that house; I very much struggle to call it a home. She was placed there by the Sout…

It is totally unacceptable that in our State in 2025, children have no guarantee of an appropriate class place to meet their needs. An appropriate class place for children with additional needs will ensure that they can engage and fully participate in the classroom the same as any other child, and an appropriate class place must also be in the child's community. Why would we be busing our most vulnerable children around, expecting them to travel long distances to go to school and receive an education? Every single …

I will raise a number of points about all of this as a TD who has been contacted by a number of parents who have received letters informing them that the surgery that took place on their very young children may not actually have been necessary. I will refer first to the timeline. On Thursday, 13 March, The Ditch published an article providing details of what it said was the external report on hip surgeries on children. Six days later, on Wednesday, 19 March, letters were sent to parents - the letters I have are all…

I ask the Minister to respond to the report of the Farrelly commission into what has usually been termed the Grace case. More importantly, I want to know what the Minister's next steps will be and what she plans to do in response. I appreciate that much of this is HSE-related and there are a lot of questions for the HSE to answer. We are reminded that when Grace was failed in the first instance, she was a child and the Minister has a role in that regard.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. There was something really stark in the response to the report's publication. Usually, we would be shocked by such failures and grave injustices but on the back of this report's publication, we saw widespread disbelief and disappointment concerning what the report was all about. It took a very long time to conclude the report - eight years - and it has cost millions in taxpayers' money, yet there is a feeling the report has not answered key questions. For us, the Minister and her Depa…

I appreciate the steps the Minister has taken and the work that will be undertaken on the back of the report specific to this case, and rightly so, as that needs to be done, but I also want to impress on the Minister the need to look at the care system today. The Children's Residential and Aftercare Voluntary Association has repeatedly called for a review of Ireland's care system. It has raised repeatedly the increase in unregistered and uninspected for-profit providers in the system. The Child Law Project has rais…

I ask for an update on the ongoing talks on pay, particularly regarding the €45 million announced in budget 2025 that will be ring-fenced for pay for our early years educators.

This is an issue I have raised on a number of occasions with the Minister. I welcome the fact she has met and engaged with the JLC and that she has gone further than that in asking it to utilise the €45 million because it is key we improve pay for the early years educators. We know staff turnover in the early years sector is really high. I got a breakdown, county by county. The annual turnover in private providers is up on 54% in some counties. That is good early years educators leaving the sector. It means more wa…

The Minister will be aware SIPTU is raising concerns about the fact the talks have been ongoing for a number of months and it feels there is a gap between the providers and those representing the early years educators and managers in the childcare settings. It is really important. It is good we have had the opportunity here this evening to make that call and to ask for the joint labour committee to complete its work in order that the €45 million would be utilised because we need it at a time when early years educat…

I wish to ask the Minister about the cost of childcare, which remains very high for a lot of parents and families. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to reduce the cost of childcare. How does the Minister intend to go about this and does she have a timeframe in mind for reducing the costs for families?

Does the Minister envisage investing more in the national childcare scheme to bring down the costs directly for parents? This is what Sinn Féin had proposed with our €10 per day plan, which is around €200 per month. This is using what is there with the current mechanism as the quickest way to bring down the costs of childcare. While the Government repeatedly tells us that the costs of childcare have halved there are families still paying well over €1,000 a month for childcare. Parents are really struggling to cover…

In our own proposal on the €200 per month, we looked at using the national childcare scheme and expanding it to childminders. That would really assist in building capacity in the sector because for many parents, the choice is no longer there. If they want to get the subsidy and need help in affording childcare, they have to look to the formal setting whereas in rural areas in particular, a local childminder might actually suit people, especially those doing shift work. We should look to expand the NCS to childminde…

I listened to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, speak. He said that you cannot disrupt procedures and then talk about the value of order and procedure. I can speak to the value of order because in the five years I have been in this House, I have never disrupted anyone. I have never spoken over anyone and have never raised my voice. Even while listening to non-answers to questions I ask, I do not disrupt. I would usually be the last person to stand up to speak on a motion of no confidence, as we see it, but I do so beca…

I acknowledge the work of the Minister and his Department on this scheme. Along with many colleagues, I have brought several queries to the Minister and he has responded in a timely manner, which I acknowledge. Every Member wants schemes like the humanitarian assistance scheme to work for people who deserve them, who are entitled to them and who have suffered, in this case, as the result of a storm. Nobody in this House wants to see people who were affected not getting the out-of-pocket expenses they incurred for t…

I also welcome this legislation and I commend the Minister on bringing it forward. It is an issue that has been raised in here and out in the real world for a number of years. I also take the opportunity to pay tribute to John O'Meara and his family for their work and the role they have taken in making sure that we got to this day and that this legislation is progressed. As we speak on this important legislation today, I am minded of all the people who lost somebody they loved dearly but did not have their relation…