Holly Cairns: Government Broke Promises on Childcare Costs

Go raibh maith agat, Ceann Comhairle. Taoiseach, in the run-up to the last general election, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were in panic mode. In an effort to distract voters from your failure to deliver, you began splashing the cash, giving nearly everyone in the country a one-off payment, which hit bank accounts in the week leading up to the election. Not just that, but a range of cast-iron commitments were made to the electorate. Chief among them was a promise to cap the cost of childcare by €200 a month. We were told that childcare costs were at the top of Fianna Fáil's agenda. While Fine Gael promised to publish a plan to cap costs and deliver a public model of childcare within the first 100 days of office. 475 days later. Where are we now? Childcare costs haven't come down by a single cent. Families with young children are still paying enormous sums to try to pay for childcare. That's if they're lucky enough to even get a childcare place, because it's almost impossible to get one, especially for babies between 6 and 12 months. This means thousands of women all over the country having to take unpaid maternity leave so they can care for their babies. It is stressful, it is a struggle, and it is hugely expensive. In an interview with Gavin Riley on Monday, you refused to commit to reducing childcare costs in the next budget. It was extraordinary to witness, given all of the pre-election bluster. The reality is our childcare system is broken, but instead of reforming it, you want to continue with business as usual. We have the resources to transform childcare services, rolling out a public model that would be accessible and affordable. It would mean the state treating childcare with the level of seriousness primary and secondary education get, recognising that investment in early years and the first few years of a child's life pays dividends over a lifetime. The Social Democrats were the first party to publish a plan for a public model of childcare. We did that two years ago, detailing how we would set up a public childcare model to acquire private businesses that wanted to sell. Because we know there are businesses who want to sell. Just this week, one of Ireland's biggest childcare operators, Tigers Childcare, was acquired by a large UK company, Kids Planet Day Nurseries. That deal was worth 75 million. That is a drop in the ocean of the surpluses available to this government. But the grim reality is that this government, which is awash with cash, lacks both vision and ambition. So you're incapable of investing the money wisely and reforming our public services, driving down costs for families, transforming people's lives in the long term for the better. Taoiseach, why won't you commit to reducing childcare fees in the budget? First of all, in terms of childcare more generally, there has been very significant progress made in childcare over the last number of years. Again, you will not acknowledge that, but that is the reality in terms of both reduction of costs and indeed the increase in the numbers of children availing of the various programmes that we have. In terms of national childcare scheme, about 277,000 children will be supported this year. That's an increase of 27,000 children in just one year. Income thresholds are rising from September of this year from 34,000 and 68,000, ensuring more low- and middle-income families qualify for higher levels of support. 105,000 children continue to benefit from two years of free preschool under the ECHI programme. And the access and inclusion model now supports a record 8,400 children with disabilities, ensuring access to mainstream early learning and childcare. Core funding now exceeds about 420 million. That's a 62% increase since 2022, with 93% of providers signed up. And after subsidies, parents in many instances will pay no more than £198.70 per week for a full day, 45-hour place. We have more to do, and we want to reduce the fees even further. And we're going to continue to work on that, and the forthcoming budget will be an opportunity to improve the situation in terms of cost of childcare and also, of course, in terms of payment. In terms of human capital, in terms of people who work in childcare, we've focused on that in particular over the last number of years. And this year's funding again, core funding allocation, includes about £45 million ring-fenced to support improved pay for early-year educators and school-age childcare practitioners, where new employment regulation orders are agreed. Now, we achieved a milestone in the last government by agreeing such a regulation order, and the most recent employment regulation order delivered an average 10% increase in minimum pay rates, benefiting over two-thirds of the workforce. And the pay negotiations are conducted through the Joint Labour Committee, with government backing the outcomes financially through the core funding. For the first time ever, the state is now directly supporting the creation of new childcare capacity through a state-led building acquisition and delivery programme, targeting areas of greatest need, including places for children under three and in rural and disadvantaged communities. €135 million in capital investment is available over the next five years, with up to eight buildings to be selected for investment in 2026. So, there has been steady progress made, and in terms of the broader issue of state-led childcare provision, childcare has evolved over the last 30-odd years, beginning, actually, in the Department of Justice under the Now programme. And it has evolved through community-placed schools, private operators... You have to come back in. Deputy Kearns. Taoiseach, you seem to just think that it's part of the course to make these big election promises to people and then completely unashamedly renege on them afterwards, that promising the electorate and promising things is just part of electioneering. It's not. People believed you when you said there would be a reduction in childcare fees. People believed this government when they said they promised to roll out a plan for a public model of childcare. But I just hope that people watching will judge this government not on their empty promises in the lead-up to the next election, but on your actions now. You say, I won't acknowledge progress, and you're talking about workers in this sector. Do you acknowledge that workers in the childcare sector have the same level of training and qualifications as other teachers, and they get paid minimum wage, and then in the summer months they have to sign on? Where is the progress for workers in this sector? Do you acknowledge that without a public model of childcare, without actually even any childcare at all for so many families, we will never reach gender equality, that this stifles women's careers, it blocks them from getting back into the workplace? And you list off your script of things there that you have I think that's progress. Time is up. Thank you, teacher. Deputy, education. And I believe in childcare for the development of the child primarily. Anything we do in the area of childcare, area of education, should be about the child as the primary issue, actually. And I know a lot about Montessori, I know all about early education, because I was involved in it, I had green papers and so on like that. And maybe people should examine your proposals. The lack of substance in them, the lack of detail, the lack of flesh on the bone. You're now suggesting you can seamlessly move from a model we've developed over the years, through community, you are saying it. You are saying and you're holding up the prospect that we can like that. Seamlessly move into a... I didn't interrupt you. I never do interrupt you. But every time I kind of say a few home truths, you all get a bit agitated and you have to try and heckle back. The bottom line is this, you do not do detailed policy propositions. That's the bottom line. You're talking about promises and you're talking about commitments. The bottom line is a lot of what you say as a party lacks that substance and lacks that detail. And you cannot overnight move from where we currently are... Thank you Taoiseach. Time is up. Deputy Paul Murphy. Time is up Taoiseach. Deputy Paul Murphy.