There is agreement across the House that money ring-fenced for staff should go to staff. I acknowledge that has been Deputy Kerrane’s personal view from the beginning. I met joint labour committee representatives today and I have met them previously. While they are entirely independent of me, it is important I take every opportunity, as the Deputy has, to articulate that money on the table is specifically ring-fenced for staff. It should go directly to them. While I referenced it briefly earlier, I wish to mention …

I will absolutely know a lot when this process concludes. I have always been clear that there are two elements to this, namely, the providers and the employees. One cannot work without the other. They must work together in the best interests of the children we serve. The mechanism we have currently, as the Deputy has outlined, is the joint labour committee. We have all made our views clear as to how we would like to see that process work, while respecting the independence of the committee. I will be in a better pos…

I thank the Deputy. Earlier this month, I announced the introduction of maximum fee caps for all partner services in core funding from September 2025. The fee freeze will remain in place for all partner services with fees below these caps. This is an important step towards the reduction of childcare fees to €200 per month over the lifetime of this Government. Maximum fee caps were introduced for new services last year, and this September they will be extended to existing services. Under the new fee caps, the highes…

I want to be clear. This is a commitment over the lifetime of the Government. The more quickly we take steps the better, and the more quickly we will be able to deliver. In the fewer than five months during which the Government has been in office, we have taken the first very significant step regarding fee caps. We should not underestimate the significance of fee caps. Families who, prior to this, were paying €325 saw a reduction to €295, and with the subsidy they are now paying less than €200 per week. That is an …

I have always been very clear that this is like a triangle. There is no point in reducing fees if there are no places for children to attend, and there is no point in having children available and reduced fees if we do not have staff who will work in the sector. There are three elements to this. On having sufficient places, I want to be clear. Sufficient funding has been provided by Government in terms of core funding. There has been an unprecedented level of investment by Government. There has been a net increase …

Obviously it is a core objective of the Government that we would maximise the number of providers in place. To do this we are lending support to private providers through schemes such as building blocks. We have also said we will step in where there is an absence of providers in an area. We are doing work on how this public model would look and what it would look like. Issues have been raised about the commitment in the planning guidelines to have places available for populations of 75 houses. Childcare facilities …

I thank the Deputy. Every year it is normal for some services to open and for some services to close. The year 2024 saw a five-year high in the number of childcare services opening and a five-year low in the number of early learning and childcare services closing. A total of 357 services opened, while 131 services closed, which resulted in a net increase of 226 childcare services opening in 2024. There have been year-on-year increases in the number of childcare services opening since registration of school-age chil…

I thank the Deputy. To be clear, I am under no illusions regarding the importance of retaining staff in this sector. I have been clear on that from the outset. We can make all the progress we want in having additional places and more accommodations available but if we do not have staff working in the sector, we achieve nothing at all. Suffice to say, the Government has put €45 million on the table for this year that is ring-fenced, solely for the purpose of ensuring there will be an increase in wages for staff work…

I thank Deputies Cooney and McAuliffe. I will go to the last question first. The building blocks scheme has been positively welcomed and will deliver an additional 1,500 places, which is hugely important. The budget available for that was €25 million and I appreciate this brings its own constraints but it is delivering 1,500 additional places. As I previously outlined, we are also working on payment for staff with the money being ring-fenced and put on the table being the €45 million. Specifically on Deputy Cooney'…

I acknowledge the Deputy's question which specifically asks about after-school and general childcare places. Early learning and childcare capacity is increasing, which is an important point to make at the outset. The estimated number of enrolments increased by approximately 19% between 2022 and 2024. Enrolments in Cork county and city each increased by almost 29% in the same period. Core funding application data shows between years one and three of the scheme, annual place hours increased by more than 15%. The grow…

We absolutely recognise that there are areas across the country where it is extremely challenging for the needs of parents to be met. For this reason, the Department is taking a number of initiatives, such as the building blocks extension scheme to provide assistance for an existing provider to put on an extension and to provide for more places. Where that is not a possibility and where no provider is in place, there is a commitment in the programme for Government to introduce State-led facilities. There would be a…

I will begin by addressing Deputy Gould's points. The express purpose last year of introducing the guidelines to schools was to ensure that they would have a freedom, at the end of the school day, to introduce things like after-school provision. As part of the guidelines, schools were informed that any funding they received through that would not impact on any grants they received from the Department of Education. It would a matter entirely for themselves to hold so that boards of management would feel that they ha…

The Department funds the provision of a range of Tusla services in County Clare, including family resource centres in Shannon, Kilrush, Ennistymon and Killaloe. These services do great work with children and families throughout Clare, and I am delighted to be able to support that work. According to information provided by Tusla on the number of social workers in Clare, I have been informed that 20 social workers are currently employed in the county. Three vacancies exist, and I understand that Tusla has undertaken …

I confirm that the Department allocated additional funding to Tusla in 2023 and 2024 and there was record investment in 2025. This included increased capital investment. Regarding foster care, 87.2% of all children in State care are cared for in the foster care setting. I cannot overstate the importance of this. It is a great opportunity for children to be placed in the foster care setting, which is excellent. In recognition of that, even though it is at 82.7%, which is high, we want it to be higher. The Department…

As I said at the outset, there are 20 social workers in County Clare. All of the three current vacancies are due to be filled this summer, depending on whether they relate to a career break, maternity leave or whatever else, so they will be at their full capacity of 23 social workers. I recognise the invaluable work of social workers. Across the country, there is a lack of social workers available to us. It is for that reason that social work, per se , is on the critical skills list of the Department of enterprise.…

I appreciate the Deputy's ongoing engagement with me on this matter. She will be aware that earlier this month I announced the introduction of maximum fee caps for all partner services in core funding from September 2025. The fee freeze will remain in place for all partner services with fees below these caps. This is an important step towards the reduction of childcare fees to €200 per month over the lifetime of this Government. Maximum fee caps were introduced for new services last year, and this September they wi…

I thank the Deputy very much. I acknowledge that she has consistently raised the very specific challenges in her area. She is correct that the cost of childcare is one thing; the remuneration of staff is another element of it; and there is also the availability of places or access to places. In that respect, there are a number of different initiatives. We already discussed that two weeks ago when we announced the Building Blocks scheme, which was of benefit to some, although not all, and will deliver an additional …

I thank the Deputies for their questions. On the last point, I have been very clear and the programme for Government is very clear: this will be delivered over the lifetime of this Government. It will be done in an incremental manner. One of the first key steps was taken just last week when we announced a fee cap would be put in place. We will build on that as we go forward. Deputy Boland has engaged with me before about building blocks. It is a scheme with existing criteria, which is absolutely delivering for some…

Specifically, that is a matter for the Department of Social Protection. I am speaking to our remit, which is childcare provision and care for disability.

Go raibh maith agaibh as ucht an t-am agus an deis seo a thabhairt dom. I thank the Sinn Féin Senators who have brought forward the Bill. I sincerely appreciate their motivation and intention here. When listening to the contributions across the House, I can tell there is a very keen understanding from Senators of the impact of socioeconomic discrimination on some of the most vulnerable people within our society. That is also the understanding of the Government It is fully recognised here today that, despite the gre…