I thank the Deputy for raising these matters. As we said previously, they are matters that are of enormous concern to all of us in this House and, indeed, right across government and I would say right across society. I want to say sincerely that I am deeply saddened by the very tragic cases that have come to light, and I extend my own sympathy and thoughts and those of the Government to the families and loved ones of these children and young people. I appreciate that the Deputy also acknowledged that these cases are the subject of active and ongoing investigation by An Garda Síochána, and it would not be appropriate for me to comment on the specific details that could, even inadvertently, prejudice that very important investigation by An Garda Síochána. I can say that, as soon as Tusla became aware of these cases, the Department was notified immediately through the agreed protocols and procedures in place. There has been ongoing engagement with Tusla relating to Tusla's own internal reviews of each specific case and on any recommendations that have arisen to date as a result of these internal reviews. I have directed the national review panel to undertake a review of each case as a matter of priority and to make findings and recommendations in respect of these as deemed appropriate. The national review panel is independent and has the remit to review serious incidents, in particular where there is suspected or confirmed abuse of a child in care. With regard to the well-being check, which we referenced earlier, its purpose is to proactively test and strengthen the current safety net the State provides for children’s welfare and protection and to provide assurances about the welfare of vulnerable children. The well-being check is focused on cases that were closed to child protection services during Covid-19 and relates to cases where there has been no further contact with the child since. As I already confirmed, the well-being check will be overseen by the independent steering group, which is to be chaired by Ms Tanya Ward, the CEO of the Children's Rights Alliance. As I said earlier to the House, I can confirm that phase 1 of the project is under way and a number of steps have been taken to date. The membership of the steering committee has been finalised and includes representatives from a variety of Departments including Social Protection, Health, Education and Youth, and Justice Home Affairs and Migration, along with representatives from the Health Service Executive, the Central Statistics Office, Tusla, Barnardos and an independent social work expert.
Sentiment score: 0.27
I appreciate all the points the Deputy raised. I do want to say that it is not just the setting up of the check and putting in place the independent steering group and all that. Engagement has also taken place with other Government Departments to explore opportunities for appropriate data sharing to establish where the children encompassed by this review are currently or recently known to the relevant State services or State-funded service. On other things that have been done, the national lead has been appointed, a well-being check team manager has been appointed, a digital case management system is in place to support the work of the teams and so forth. Again, I can confirm that I have met with the chair of the independent steering group on her appointment and, indeed, I will be doing so again in advance of the commencement of phase 2. As I already mentioned, there is funding of €3.2 million being made available. The Deputy referenced other measures that could be done. I will shortly be bringing forward a Bill updating and modernising the Child Care Act, which provides the foundation for child protection and welfare services in the State. This will strengthen the child protection legal framework and the powers available to Tusla. I also intend to bring forward amendments via the childcare Bill 2025 to place the national review panel on a statutory footing. This will further enhance the work of the national review panel and will strengthen its independence and ability to compel information and witnesses in respect of all reviews that it undertakes.
Sentiment score: 0.31
I recognise that it is a whole-of-house determination to do right here and, where we can improve things and make things better, that we would absolutely do that. The first step for us, of course, is the well-being check in terms of specifically having eyes on children where cases were closed during Covid. I will be led by the steering group on the timeline for that. I will respect its independence in terms of that, but I would be hopeful that we are talking about just a matter of months in that regard. Again, however, I will not be dictating to it. I will allow the work to take place, but I would like it to be done in the tightest timeframe possible. I want it to be a full body of work as well, but that we would speak of months rather than anything else. I will provide briefings and so forth on the childcare amendment Bill. It is an ideal opportunity now for us now to tighten up where we need to from a legislative point of view. That will include the national review panel and strengthening the child protection legal framework and the powers Tusla has available to it.
Sentiment score: 0.36
Again, that is a matter for the national review panel. Prior to anything being published, it will have to be with the permission of the Attorney General. It would have to go through all of that, so as soon as all the Attorney General's work is completed.
Sentiment score: 0.01
The Government is committed to ensuring access to affordable, quality early learning and care and school-age childcare, with an investment of €1.48 billion in the 2026 budget. This funding will allow the Department to build on recent progress in the gradual reduction of fees for parents while also supporting supply and the quality of provision. Budget 2026 enables core funding to continue to support fee control measures and will also allow for growth in the sector. The allocation of core funding in 2026 will ensure fees remain at 2021 levels for a majority of providers. As well as this, a new maximum fee cap will be set to reduce costs for families paying the highest fees across the country. Further details of the new lower maximum fee caps will be announced in the coming months. The 2026 allocation for core funding will also support implementation of the recently announced employment regulation orders, which led to a 10% increase in the minimum rate of pay for educators from 13 October. There will also be enhancements in year 5 of core funding to improve pay for educators and school-age childcare practitioners with implementation of new employment regulation orders. Further steps will be detailed in the action plan on accessible, high-quality, affordable early learning and care and school-age childcare, which the Department is continuing to develop. The action plan will be informed by a broad consultation process and will set out plans to achieve programme for Government commitments including the commitment to reduce maximum monthly fees to €200 over the lifetime of the Government. I am aware that a small number of service providers have, regrettably, chosen to withdraw from the core funding scheme. However, uptake of core funding remains strong and the absolute numbers of providers participating in the scheme nationally are at record levels. As of 10 November, there were 4,533 services signed up to core funding, which accounts for over 92.5% of all services and is the highest number of services signed up to core funding since it was launched in 2022. The number continues to grow. In the interest of clarity, transparency and consistent reporting, I have defined a service that has left core funding as any service that had a gap between contracts for core funding of four or more weeks. While the State cannot mandate providers to participate in the scheme, core funding has been designed with maximum participation of providers in mind, as reflected in the year-on-year growth of investment in the scheme rising from €259 million in year 1 to approximately €437 million in 2026.
Sentiment score: 0.37
I concede that there are those that have left but, in the round, nationally, we have the highest level of providers choosing to be part of the core funding model, at almost 93%. We have never had it as high, notwithstanding, and I understand the challenges in the Deputy's area, that in certain areas people have chosen to opt out. In terms of supports being provided in core funding, there has been an unprecedented investment by the State, in the first instance in year 1 of €259 million invested by the State, which in 2026 will rise to €437 million. It is hugely significant. Lots of providers say one of their greatest challenges is staff, staff retention and attracting staff. A total of €45 million was ring-fenced by the Government last year to ensure that would go towards improved salaries for staff. There are also schemes like the building blocks scheme to provide for providers.
Sentiment score: 0.38
As the Deputy articulated, this is a commitment across the lifetime of Government in terms of the delivery of the €200 cost. We have maintained the fee freeze at 2021 levels. Those paying who were paying the highest costs at €295 are now paying less than €200 when the subsidies are included. There is more work to be done in that space. It will be over the lifetime of the Government that we will reach the target of the €200. On the challenges in cost of living, I feel they are across the country. It is a difficult thing to say the cost-of-living challenges are greater in one party of the country than in another, notwithstanding the fact there can be nuances in different areas. I am happy to speak to the Deputy about that at another time. I would be challenged in terms of the understanding around that but I am happy to discuss it with him on another occasion.
Sentiment score: 0.25
The 2001 planning guidelines for local authorities on early learning and childcare settings were issued under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. The guidelines are intended to ensure a consistent approach to the treatment of planning applications in respect to the land use planning aspects of early learning and childcare provision. The 2001 guidelines have contributed to the creation of supply in residential developments. However, the Department is aware that there are instances where the building provided has not been put to use for its intended purpose and in some instances remains vacant or is being used for another purpose. The programme for Government commits to reviewing the 2001 childcare facilities guidelines for planning authorities to ensure early learning and childcare spaces are provided and put into use. The 2024 Planning and Development Act and the publication of the national planning framework now provide a strong basis from which to pursue this work. An early learning and childcare planning matters working group with officials from my Department, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Education and Youth was established in 2024 and has met on a number of occasions across 2024 and 2025. Meetings have been held since summer 2025 with members of the working group with officials from different local authorities who were nominated by the City and County Managers Association planning and land use committee. This engagement with nominated planners was effective in identifying a number of important considerations for the review and is now informing a wider engagement with local authorities on the ground. These issues include ensuring that buildings developed on foot of the guidelines meet the needs of the local population and are fit for purpose and balancing the need to ensure sufficient provision for children and families, regardless of the size or housing type of the development, with ensuring that buildings are effectively operated as intended when they were first built. In parallel, planning is under way to capture the views of other stakeholders who will have an interest in the revised guidelines. I am also engaging directly with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to determine how best to support and inform the drafting of revised guidelines under the new planning and development Act. The approach more widely to ensuring appropriate levels of early learning and childcare supply is core to the work of this Department and will be further articulated in the context of the action plan to build an affordable, high-quality and accessible early learning and childcare system that Government has committed to publishing.
Sentiment score: 0.43
I appreciate how infuriating it is and I could identify them myself in various areas, where these specific buildings, which were committed to be early learning and childcare facilities have either had a price placed on them that is far beyond what anybody could pay or the design of the building, on occasion, sometimes is not even appropriate. It is there in name as an early learning and childcare facility but in reality, the manner in which it has been built is not appropriate for that. Capital investment, which the Deputy referenced, may be required to fit it out. Oftentimes, the developer may choose to go for a change of use. All of these are the issues we need to knock on the head. We have engaged on the ground and I acknowledge the engagement we had with the city and county managers. They have been helpful in this regard and this has informed our engagement on the ground with the various local authorities. It would appear some local authorities are better than others so there are opportunities to learn from best practice in one over the other.
Sentiment score: 0.33
I do not disagree with the Deputies. I am conscious this is a logjam and a challenge that should not be there in the first instance. I have always been of the view that where you have housing, you need to have early learning and childcare facilities. You need to have schools. You need to have, as the Deputy said, community developed around it. There are too many stumbling blocks and it has been made far too easy for people to renege on early learning and childcare provision. Honestly, the date and time is not within my gift and the Deputies will appreciate that. That is a matter for the Minister for housing but I have engaged with him and will continue to do so. Significant work has been undertaken by the working group, some in 2024 and throughout 2025. I have said previously we could not do the work without the engagement we have from the city and county managers and the planning and land use committee. I acknowledge an important step was when we met with individual local authorities where they were sharing their experience of applying the guidelines, what worked and what did not work. I acknowledge it works better in some places than in others. I will continue to engage with the Minister for housing on this matter as a priority.
Sentiment score: 0.22
Improving access to quality and affordable early learning and childcare is a key priority of the Government. Overall, early learning and childcare capacity is increasing. Data from the annual early years sector profile in 2024 shows the estimated number of enrolments has increased by 19% in the previous two years. However, it appears that demand for early learning and childcare remains higher than available supply in certain parts of the country, particularly for younger children. The development of the forward planning model is currently under way using the expertise of statisticians on secondment from the Central Statistics Office and other specialists. The model seeks to identify the nature and volume of different types of early learning and childcare places across the country and how that aligns with the numbers of children in the corresponding age cohorts at local level. An extensive data analysis and cleaning exercise is currently being undertaken to map available publicly subsidised supply. This involves combining data from multiple administrative sources, including child population data, using GIS mapping tools. The analysis of the forward planning model will provide a key input into the approach to the capital programme to be resourced through the allocation in the revised national development plan for 2026 to 2030. It will be one of a number of factors considered when selecting and prioritising projects. Other factors will reflect the policy goals of the Department to support a high quality, inclusive and accessible early learning and childcare system and to ensure value for money. The forward planning model is being designed primarily as a tool for internal analysis. The maps and data the model will produce will contain projected categories of data and will therefore not be made generally available in full. As the model is further developed along with accompanying policy work related to supply, aggregated statistics, including statistics broken down by geographical area, may be made available if this is deemed compliant with data protection obligations. Preparatory work for this programme of capital investment is under way and the programme is planned to commence in line with the revised NDP allocation from 2026 onwards. As such, no decisions on prioritisation or targeting of certain geographic areas have been made yet.
Sentiment score: 0.08
To be quite honest with the Deputy, I am not sure where the two years is coming out of. I am speaking on the programme for Government for this Government. The Deputy is aware it was this Government that put into the programme for Government the commitment to deliver State-led facilities - not the last Government, this one. As this Government has been in place for less than nine months, I am at a loss to understand her timeline. Specifically for delivery, the work of the forward planning unit must be allowed to continue. Specific funding has been made available for 2026. I have given a commitment that in 2026 the public-led model will begin its journey, as it were. Some €36 million in capital funding is available for 2026. This will allow for a variety of things, including the acquisition of new builds, the expansion of existing facilities or whatever the case might be. In 2026, it is anticipated that this public model will deliver between 600 and 800 places. It will facilitate seven or eight new, specific, public-led models as the first step in a journey that will be completed over the lifetime of the Government.
Sentiment score: 0.10
Let us be clear: when it was first conceived, the forward planning unit had absolutely nothing to do with the State-led model. The State-led model is an innovation of this Government, which is in place less than nine months. The Deputy is conflating two things that have nothing to do with each other. Let us have absolute clarity about that in terms of the timeline the Deputy is talking about. The Government is committed to delivering the State-led model, beginning this year, as part of a five-year Government commitment. We will do that work. We are committed to beginning that work and having the State-led model beginning to be in place in 2026. It will deliver, as I have said, somewhere between 600 and 800 places, depending on how many of the specific services we can put in place. That will be somewhere between six and eight services and we will build on this year on year as we go on. In terms of other supports that are being provided for, other resources have been put in place in the Fingal area. Two services in Fingal have been shortlisted in 2025 for the building blocks model, one in Clonsilla and one in Lusk. Some €334,375 is being made available under the private extension strand to support additional places being provided. The State-led model is a new initiative and will take time. We have begun the work and we will see it materialise in 2026.
Sentiment score: 0.18
I welcome the opportunity to provide an update on the matter. I am pleased to confirm that historical fee data is now available on the national childcare service search for fees from the 2021-22 programme year to the present programme year. I acknowledge that this was very important to the Deputy and that he pursued it for some time. The portal hosting this information was originally designed to contain information for the current programme year only. However, the portal was recently upgraded following a concerted effort between the Department and Pobal, the scheme administrator, during a busy period with competing ICT demands due to the commencement of the 2025-26 programme year. The Department is committed to ensuring information is transparent about fees charged to parents, in line with commitments in the programme for Government. Therefore, this welcome development ensures improved transparency in relation to early learning and childcare fees across the country. I would also like to highlight that in addition to service fees lists, historical and current, the following information is also readily available on the portal: contact details for early learning and childcare services, whether these services are private, community or childminding services; the services calendar, which provides details of services' operating hours per week and operating weeks per year and whether the service offers the ECCE programme; and details with regard to the national childcare scheme, including if it is taking part in the core funding scheme. A key element of the core funding scheme is to improve affordability for parents by ensuring that services have not increased the fees charged to parents above what was charged in September 2021, unless approved by the Department through the fee increase assessment process. While work was ongoing to upload these historic fees lists to the portal, Department officials also delivered a solution to provide access to historic fees list data from 2021-22 to the present through the network of city and county childcare committees. This allowed any individual with fee-related queries to engage with their local city and county childcare committee for additional information and support in understanding fees charged to them. The network of 30 childcare committees across the country supports parents and guardians to understand their early learning and childcare options and keep an updated directory of early learning and childcare services in their local areas. They can also provide information and support in relation to fees. The contact details for all 30 childcare committees are available at gov.ie.
Sentiment score: 0.39
I acknowledge that the Deputy has pursued this. It is important that parents have the maximum information available to them. It is also important that the system is seen to be transparent and that is the purpose of the information being made available. I can confirm that it went live on 30 October, just a short while ago. If parents need any additional information or assistance, I suggest that they contact the city and county childcare committees, which are available to assist them with fees data or indeed with any query, question or complexity they might face. If they feel there is a case of potential breach of core funding fee rules by a partner service, they may need to have this examined and a conclusion reached through the core funding fee review process. A link to a list of current services in contract for core funding can be found online, which is helpful to parents as well.
Sentiment score: 0.16
I thank the Deputy very much. Improving access to quality and affordable early learning and childcare is a key priority for Government. Early learning and childcare capacity is increasing. Data from the annual early years sector profile shows the estimated number of enrolments has increased by approximately 19% between 2022 and 2024. However, it appears demand for early learning and childcare remains higher than available supply in certain parts of the country, particularly for younger children. As announced in the context of budget 2026, €36 million will be available in 2026 for early learning and childcare capital programmes. This will include acquisitions of new buildings through the State-led early learning and childcare programme, continued investment in expansion of existing early learning and childcare operators through the building blocks scheme and a number of quality initiatives, including supports to childminders. The building blocks extension grant scheme earlier this year approved 50 projects to progress to the next stage of the grant process. The scheme will deliver up to 1,500 full day places for children aged between one and three years old. The Department continues to support the ongoing development and resourcing of core funding, which has given rise to a significant expansion of places since the scheme was first introduced. Budget 2025 secured funding for the fourth programme year to facilitate a further 3.5% increase from September 2025. Budget 2026 has made provision for the fifth programme year for a further expansion in supply of 4.2% from September 2026. The total allocation for core funding in the 2026-2027 programme year will increase to €437 million, an additional €44 million on the current full year allocation. Separately, since August 2024, parent’s leave and benefit have been increased to nine weeks per parent per child, bringing Ireland in line with the EU work-life balance directive. The combined durations of maternity, paternity and parent’s leave and benefit now equate to 46 weeks paid leave for a two-parent family, supplemented by an entitlement to 16 weeks of unpaid maternity leave and 26 weeks of unpaid parental leave per parent. This constitutes significant progress towards achieving the First 5 ambition of enabling children to be cared for at home during their first year, which is supported by substantial research and evidence and reduces the demand for early learning and childcare for very young children, particularly those under the age of one.
Sentiment score: 0.35
I hear the case the Deputy makes but I am obliged to point out the improvements that have been made, which the Deputy has already articulated. Not everybody is in that space but I have to point out the increases to parent's leave and parent's benefit and all of that, although I absolutely acknowledge that does not meet the needs of every single individual. We are very conscious of the need to ensure that there is appropriate provision to meet the needs in different places across the country. Those needs are different and there are greater challenges in some areas and for some ages. In some instances, there may be issues with after-school care and, in others, it might be an issue with the very young cohort the Deputy mentions. Government is prepared to step in to support that equality of opportunity. As I made reference to earlier, there are really three aspects to this. There is the delivery of places, ensuring we have staff in place to man those places, and core funding for the providers. In terms of the delivery of places, €36 million has been made available under the capital plan this year. This will support the development of a State-led model and other models such as the Building Blocks schemes. In terms of supporting workers, €45 million was ring-fenced last year to ensure an increase in salary under the employment regulation order, ERO. Some 67% of workers benefited from that increase because of that €45 million being ring-fenced. A similar ERO will be in place for 2026. With regard to supporting providers, there is a significant increase in core funding, which will reach more than €437 million in 2026.
Sentiment score: 0.38
It is finished, is it? The time is up.
Sentiment score: 0.00