To the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and the Minister of State, I have to say I was in disbelief at what was announced on childcare in the budget yesterday. In the last two weeks it has been reported that between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil there has been a wrestle between reducing costs for parents or building childcare capacity. This budget does neither. We are all well aware that there are three big issues. They are the cost for parents, the severe lack of childcare places and pay and terms and conditions for our early years educators. If there was anything in this budget that would significantly make a difference on any of those three, I would probably be the first on this side of the House to welcome them, and I would. However, we have serious issues with all three and nothing in the budget announced yesterday is going to make a difference. The prime example of that is the announcement made in the speech by the Minister, Deputy Chambers, that the building blocks infrastructure programme will fund extensions of existing community centres and schools to deliver approximately 2,300 additional childcare places. When we have a need of approximately 40,000 children on waiting lists for childcare in the State, we are talking about extensions to schools and community centres. There is planning permission and build. How long would that take? I would bet that nothing has been done and there has been no conversation with the Department of education about extensions to their schools. We have schools, and I have them in my constituency, waiting 20 years for new builds. We have special classes that were promised modular that never came, and we are talking about extensions to schools. Most of the boards of management in the State would not allow private childcare providers on their grounds in the first place. As to community centres, the easiest approach - I genuinely thought that the Minister, Deputy Foley, was going to do this - is to use the building blocks extension scheme, which allows providers to buy or build new. Expanding the scheme so that people could buy existing buildings could easily have been done. That would build immediate capacity in the sector. It would be done quickly, and it would mean there was not an empty building in the centre of a town either. I cannot understand how that has been overlooked for 2,300 places that in reality will never come. They certainly will not come for the children on waiting lists today or for the parents who are trying to get childcare places but who are not going to get them through an extension to a school any time soon. That is a good idea in future, and it should be planned for, and if we decide that we are going to colocate, then fine, but that is not going to do anything for the 40,000 children who have no childcare places today. Regarding these three issues, the only thing really of any merit in the budget book is the additional 35,000 children who will go into the national childcare scheme. I heard the Minister, Deputy Burke, on the radio this morning. He announced it as 35,000 additional childcare places. We need to be very careful in what tell people this actually means. It does not mean 35,000 childcare places. I only wish it did. There is nothing announced in the budget that will drastically or in any modest way reduce childcare fees for parents. Some are paying €1,000-plus per month for childcare. Despite all of the talk in relation to childcare and childcare costs, there is absolutely nothing that will make a difference for parents. I spoke to my brother the other day. He talked about a lady at work who was three months overdue to come back to work. She cannot go back. Her poor mother, who is battling cancer, would have taken the child but is not in a position to do so. There is no childcare place. She has been out of work for three months on top of her maternity leave. That is just one case that shows the real impact this is having on families and parents, primarily women, and also on our economy.

Sentiment score: 0.03

We have no ring-fenced funding for our early years educators and school-age practitioners at a time when the staff turnover rate in some counties is upwards of 50%. We have 50% of early years educators in some counties leaving the sector, yet we have no ring-fenced funding for an additional pay increase next year. They are still waiting on the pay increase that was announced in June. We are almost four months on now. That was only signed last week, and I welcomed it, but that should have and could have been in place on 1 September. The joint labour committee, JLC, that is used to set wages is not working. Bar this pay increase, which is half decent, the last one was 65 cent. It took 14 months to negotiate, and this is at a time when people are leaving the sector in their droves. Alarm bells should be going off because if we do not have the educators, then we can forget about reducing costs for parents and building capacity. We will have no childcare sector. The idea of throwing this to the JLC once again to see what some of the big providers in the State will agree to in terms of pay for these professionals, whom we absolutely need to retain in the sector, without having anything ring-fenced is really disappointing and will lead to more educators leaving, more rooms being closed and more people on waiting lists for childcare. Based on what was announced yesterday, the situation is going to go from bad to worse. There are commitments in the programme for Government to review core funding. Millions and millions and of euro are going into core funding. We saw an article last week in The Journal showing some providers that had pulled out of it. Their profits are in the millions of euro. That commitment in the programme for Government to review core funding should be done. The Minister said that year 1 was being evaluated. That is way out of date now; we are into year four. This is taxpayers' money and we need a full review of the core funding - where it is going, who it is being spent on and what it is been spent on - and that should be done immediately. It is incredible that it is not being done. At the same time, we have providers like those that are dealing with amounts in the millions of euro leaving core funding, and parents paying an additional €300 and €400 in their childcare bills. We have smaller providers that are really struggling, and it is parents who pay the price over and over again. I hosted foster carers and the Irish Foster Care Association in Leinster House last week. It would be remiss of me not to raise this. It is difficult to emphasise the level of disappointment among foster carers. They got an increase for the first time in 15 years in the foster care allowance and they fear they will wait another 15 for the next. Foster carers are looking after the most vulnerable children in this State and they are doing so on behalf of the State. I met foster carers last week that had given 30 and 40 years. Some of them had taken in over 100 children in their time. When they get to the age of 66, though, they have no State pension. When we consider what they have done for the State in terms of their service, the idea that they will get no State pension at 66 is absolutely disgraceful.

Sentiment score: -0.05

I have asked repeatedly for the most perfect system - I credit the Government for it because it got to it eventually - for family carers in terms of the State pension. It is excellent, and family carers have got the State pension they deserve, especially those who were short the 520 credits. The Government should do the same thing for foster carers where they are short and not allow them to get to the age of 66 after giving 30 and 40 years of service to this State looking after children, some of whom have been through the most incredible trauma, without being in a position where they are entitled to a State pension. That needs to be dealt with quickly. I cannot emphasise enough the disappointment for those foster carers, and this at a time when we have more children in or going into State care and fewer foster carers. They are leaving, and based on yesterday's performance in the budget, even more will leave now. I want to make reference to the carer's allowance and the earnings disregard. We have to remember every time we talk about abolishing the means test for carer's allowance that there were 14 years when there was no increase in that disregard. Therefore, the Government is playing catch-up in a very big way in that regard. From 2008 to 2021, there was nothing for carers. The national carers' strategy was published in 2012. At the time, the carers sat back and said they knew there were no resources and there was nothing being allocated to this strategy and that they would wait. This is how they have been treated, in that they will have to wait again. What was announced yesterday will make a difference, but it should come in a lot earlier than July next year. That is really disappointing. The Taoiseach mentioned storms. We had the pleasure of Storm Amy in the west at the weekend. Some households in my area of west Roscommon, elsewhere in Roscommon and throughout Galway had four or five days without power. The humanitarian assistance scheme is not being opened. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy Calleary, about that. It is deeply disappointing and a mistake. He is sending people to a community welfare officer whom people cannot meet or get access to in most communities. We have no contact numbers for a lot of them. It is incredible. We are sending people there to look for exceptional needs payments, which most of them will not get because those are means tested. These are people who were without electricity on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in some instances. Most of them are back now. To add insult to injury, it is some of the same forestry again. I stood in forestry over the weekend. The ESB lads are in the same forestry that they were in January because it has not been dealt with by the ESB. That is a shame and needs to be sorted out as quickly as possible. It is unacceptable that people across Roscommon, Galway, the wider west and other parts of our State are left without electricity and, in many cases, heating because ESB cannot go in and make sure the corridors are cleared of trees. It needs to be dealt with quickly. I ask the Taoiseach to look at the humanitarian assistance scheme. The Government should support the households that have suffered this weekend through no fault of their own.

Sentiment score: -0.06