Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as teacht isteach chun déileáil leis an gceist seo. In the election in 2024 his party and mine made a commitment to reduce the cost of childcare. This is an important tenet and in the Dún Laoghaire constituency childcare was one of the major issues people were talking to me about. They were essentially paying a second mortgage to put their children into childcare. It is an enormous cost and an enormous burden on households. The proposed reduction we promised in the election was therefore welcome. It was proportionate and also doable. I recognise the work that has gone into putting this scheme in place to reduce the cost to €200 in line with that commitment. I recognise progress has been made in that area, yet we still see a situation where many schools are exciting the scheme. It is not working for them. The childcare providers are telling us they cannot operate the service they want to operate in line with the subsidies the Government is giving them. I want to draw particular attention to a school called Sharavogue in Glenageary in my constituency. It is a really good school that has been built up over a number of years by the owner, Betty Allen. A letter was sent out by her and Gillian Dawson, who is the manager of the school, to parents saying the school was exiting the scheme. This is a massive blow to the parents who have children in that facility. It is a crèche and a Montessori and provides a number of different levels of care to children. These are people who are dedicating to providing childcare. It is a facility that is based on quality and the team wants to provide a quality service to parents. They also want to be part of the scheme and to make the service as affordable as they possibly can. However, they have written to parents saying that on 28 August, Sharavogue will have to exit the scheme. It cannot survive with the scheme the Government is putting together. It is not that the management team have not engaged with the Department, as they have. They have brought their problems and their issues to the Government but for whatever reason those have not been addressed. We now have a situation where the children who are in Sharavogue, and more importantly their families and households, will not be able to avail of the scheme. To give an example of that what means, for Montessori from 7:45 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. the current fee per month is €1,332 and when the school leaves the scheme that will go up to €1,725. That is just one fee I have picked but it is a massive increase for a household and that is for one child, so where a family has more children in Sharavogue it will go up more. The school provides discounts and help where someone has multiple children in the facility but the point is these are people who are committed to providing childcare and providing quality. The management team have talked about the reasons they have to leave. Salaries is a big one. I have raised it with the Minister, Deputy Foley, in here before that running a childcare facility in Dún Laoghaire is more expensive than it is in much of the rest of the country because the living costs there are higher. She said there was no way to establish that but I totally disagree. Rents and property prices are higher and therefore the cost of living in the area is higher for staff. The school also talked about the cost of insurance, which has gone up and up. The cost of utilities was also raised. The cost of heating and of running the kitchen that provides food for the kids have gone up, as has the cost of cleaning and maintenance, the cost of food itself, the administrative cost and transport costs. All of these have gone up and the problem the management faces – and I can understand where they are coming from – is the scheme the Government has put in place is not reflecting that. They are not alone in thinking that as I could name four other facilities in the Dún Laoghaire constituency that are leaving the scheme for the same reasons. If we are serious about delivering on that commitment what are we going to do to keep them in this scheme? What provisions are we putting in place for childcare providers in Dún Laoghaire and the rest of the country to ensure they stay within the scheme – which they want to do – and deliver childcare at affordable prices for households and families across the country?

Sentiment score: 0.12

I thank the Minister of State. I do not doubt his bona fides on this topic. I started by acknowledging the work that has been done. I believe the commitment to reduce the cost of childcare was a serious and sincere one. Insofar as I have had any dealings with the people who fund the programme for Government, I believe that. I recognise the progress, the increased funding and all the rest. However, I will say two things. First, the Minister of State said a small number of facilities have exited the scheme. I would be very interested in seeing an analysis as to where those facilities are. Are they predominantly in urban areas? I suspect they are, because as I said, I feel the costs in urban areas are higher because of the costs of property, rent, insurance, etc., and there is a greater demand on those providers. I previously asked for a situation where the level of subsidies paid to facilities would reflect the real cost for them of doing business, but it seems the Department is unwilling to engage on that level. The second thing is that remaining hopeful they will join is not enough. They actually have to be given an incentive. By the same token, there is no need to show Betty Allen and Gillian Dawson the merits of being in the scheme. They understand the merits. They want to be in the scheme. They were in the scheme and they want to continue in the scheme, but they cannot do so. There is no point in remaining hopeful that they might rejoin if nothing is being done to facilitate their rejoining. They do not want to leave the scheme but they are looking at a situation where it is unsustainable for them to stay in it. This is why, while I acknowledge the work that has been done, it is useless if there are facilities providing a quality service in an area where they are serving lots of households and people in communities and all the rest but they cannot sustain it. We need to look at the scheme again to make sure that exactly this kind of facility, like Sharavogue, is facilitated in continuing. We do not need to show this facility the merits of the scheme. We need to meet the problems this childcare centre has and address the legitimate, identifiable and verifiable concerns raised about the cost of doing business.

Sentiment score: 0.21