Kathleen Funchion welcomes childcare progress, urges more action
Deputy Kathleen Funchion spoke on childcare, early years funding and child poverty, welcoming recent announcements while pressing for further action. She praised steps on wages and fees for early years workers but warned that more coordinated investment is needed to protect children from rising costs.
Childcare and early years funding
Deputy Kathleen Funchion welcomed the most recent announcements affecting the early years sector, noting progress on both wages and fees and the recognition for workers in relation to the ERO. She described the developments as a step in the right direction for a sector that has been underinvested for years.
Alternative budget allocation noted
She said the alternative budget had included an allocation for a decrease of one-third this year and two-thirds next year, and welcomed those measures as positive while stressing that opposition representatives must continue to push for more investment.
Child poverty and cost-of-living pressures
Funchion raised concerns about rising child poverty amid increasing and unpredictable household bills, pointing out that responsibility cuts across the Department of Children, Education and Social Welfare. She referenced criticism of a two-euro increase for a qualified child under social welfare and warned that more families are relying on food banks, putting more children potentially at risk.
Domestic violence services and refuge capacity
She asked about TUSLA and possible increases for domestic violence services and refuge spaces, noting that responsibility in that area is moving to the Department of Justice and requesting that the ministry follow up with further information.
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Thanks very much, Cahirleach. I have two and a half minutes sharing with Deputy Tully, so I am going to try and fit loads, and I am going to specifically look at the area of children and childcare, and I want to start off by welcoming the most recent announcements. It is unusual. I have been sitting in the chair listening to all the opposition speeches and thought that mine might be a little bit different, but I do think it is important to give credit where it is due. I would have liked to see more, and that is our job in the opposition as well, to always be pushing for more, but I will say, and Minister Rabbit will be particularly aware of this, for years I have spoken about the early year sector, the wages in particular, and also then the fees, so it is great to see progress on both of those issues, and I think it is important to acknowledge that. There is always more that can be done, and I do think it is up to us to keep pushing that, and we will continue to do that. We did have, I suppose, an allocation for a decrease of one-third this year and two-thirds next year in our alternative budget, however, I do think as a sector that has been underinvested for years in previous governments, it is good and it is welcome, and I think it is progress, and it is a step in the right direction, and particularly for the workers in relation to the ERO, the kind of recognition for them, that has been hard fought. So that is, I think, a positive thing. I really do think that that is good, and it is progress. I did want to actually touch a little bit on child poverty, given the recent, I suppose, over the last number of months and weeks, we all know about the increased costs of living, and no matter how much you try and budget or think, okay, a bill might have gone up double, people's bills are just getting to the stage where, you know, you can't nearly predict at all what it is going to be, and it struck me when I was looking at this, like, that so much of it, it doesn't just fall to the Department of Children, like, some of it falls to the Department of Social Welfare, in terms of the increase. I know there has been some criticism of the two-euro increase, which falls to social welfare, for example, for the increase for a qualified child, and how that doesn't really go far enough. But in terms of the amount of children now that are going to be at greater risk of child poverty, is there some plan to look at some joined up between Department of Children, Education and Social Welfare? Because already we were hearing, like, in committee, for example, about people relying more and more on food banks, and it just strikes me that we're going to see more children, you know, potentially at risk of child poverty. And the other thing I wanted to actually ask, and I know there's not really a response time, but just in relation to TUSLA and possible increases for domestic violence services as well, at some point, maybe the Ministry could come back to that. I know it's going to the Department of Justice, but in terms of the refuge spaces. Thanks very much, Chair. Thank you.
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