In 2024, parties were falling over themselves, as we know, including the Minister’s, promising parents €200 a month childcare. The latest Fianna Fáil meeting was talking about €786 per month, possibly, later on this year, so it will be like €200 a week will be nearer the mark. However, the real problem we have is childcare provision. The private childcare model is simply not working for parents. With so many more providers falling out of the sector, we need a public model.

Perhaps the Deputy was not in the Chamber earlier when we spoke about the progress that has been made towards the €200. As I said, we have published phase 1 of the action plan and phase 2 is under way. We have made some progress. For example, we made the announcement recently in terms of the maximum fee caps. For the vast majority of people who are availing of childcare services of less than 50 hours, and this is the cohort paying the highest fees, that payment will reduce to €183 per week.

We have also confirmed that 25% of families are already on the €200 or paying less than €200 a month, or €50 a week. We have also increased the thresholds to gain the maximum in terms of the national childcare subsidy. We are on the journey. We said it would be committed to and delivered over the lifetime of the Government in terms of €200, and we are on that journey and we are in the early stages of this Government presently.

Specifically in terms of the State-led model or, as the Deputy referred to it, the public provision, the Government is committed to undertaking a broad consultation and to publishing phase 2 of the action plan on an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education and care system, with State-led facilities adding capacity for the first time, noting that the plan will enhance parental choice through ongoing support for public, private and community provision as well as childminders. Shaping the Future, the early years action plan phase 1, was published in December of 2025 and sets out measures to achieve key programme for Government commitments on the affordability, which I have already mentioned, quality and accessibility of early learning and care and school-age childcare over the course of 2026. This includes a broad-based consultation which has been under way during the first half of 2026. The consultation resulted in 11,000 responses initially to the online survey, with 56 local consultation events held across the country, engagement with children to ascertain their views and a national consultation event, which is due to take place later in the year.

The problem is that the private childcare model is being heavily subsidised by the State, but even with these subsidies it is simply not working. Discovery Montessori in Castleknock has written to TDs, for example, in my area. It is the latest childcare provider saying that the core funding model cannot work for it. The fee freezes mean that it would not be able to meet its costs in wages, utilities, insurance, etc. I do not have a way of checking out all of those claims, but what I will say is that there is no way we can provide quality childcare with decent pay under the private model. The Minister used to be Minister for education. We need preschool to be provided in the same way that primary and secondary are, underpinned by the State, with childcare workers trained by the State and given decent pay and conditions to attract them into the profession. We know it is an horrifically unstable profession and very badly paid - female-centred, as usual. I know there is a consultation but the Minister needs to look at that long-term strategy.

To be fair, I agree with the Deputy in terms of issues she has raised, such as that of pay, for example. It is for that reason that €45 million was ring-fenced last year and will be this year to improve the pay for workers, notwithstanding the fact that the State is not the employer here, and the Deputy has made that point very eloquently, However, the State is stepping in. How that is divvied up is independent of the Minister and the Department and that work is under way. Over two years, €90 million being put on the table by Government is a significant amount of money in terms of wages.

On the action plan and the State led model, this is the first time the State has ever stepped in to provide a State-led model. We have said that this year, for the first time, eight different facilities will be provided for across the country to meet demand in the area and they will be not-for-profit. We will learn a huge amount from this first year as to how we might be able to move forward, but this is an important first step.

The Deputy is correct when she says it is about having the staff, the premises and a sufficient number of places available at costs that are affordable to parents. There are at least three key elements here that have to be achieved. There is no point in achieving one if we are not achieving the other two. I take the Deputy's point in relation to schools and she is right. I have worked the vast majority of my life in schools. It is part of the programme for Government that we would look at, for example, where new schools are being built, that there would be opportunities for childcare facilities to be included. I agree 100% about facilities that could be made available after school hours. These are State premises so there should be opportunities there as well and all of that is being looked at.

I acknowledge, as the Deputy did, that there are excellent private providers. The purpose of what we are doing here in the first instance with the State-led model is to work alongside where there is provision, and where nobody has stepped in and additional provision is required, the State would step in. It is not an either-or.

Eight buildings are being developed this year and next year we are hoping to go a step further. Where we may do so, we will build. We will have to see how we go forward, but it is an innovative and positive step forward.