I thank social workers and all the people working in the industry. The amendments to the Bill build on calls from Members of this House over several years. I welcome the work put into it. Also on a positive note, the changes to improve Tusla and childcare across the system are welcome. Foster parents who take children into their home have to be commended. To show someone love and give someone support is very honourable. The parts of the Bill strengthening regulation and oversight are admirable as well. There have been calls for a very long time about the Government arrangement with Tusla. We see from recent incidents that there need to be improved enforcement powers. The tightening of quality and safety standards are welcome. I do not see how anyone would not support that. It is good to see we are continuing towards treating early years education as part of our social infrastructure. It is not just a private service; it should be available to everyone in the State. I welcome that. I thank the Minister of State for the time she gave to the Clontarf Bulls and the other teams and for speaking to the parents afterwards. For any parent of a child with additional needs going through the education system, it was great to see the engagement and I thank the Minister of State for her work on that. The parents we had in for the meeting were speaking of going through childcare, school and university, especially the CRC. Giving children with additional needs supports after they leave is important. The Clontarf Bulls reiterated that. I thank other Members of the House, as well, for their welcoming into it. Childcare is not a luxury. I know everyone in this House heard that on the doors in the last election. It is very difficult at the moment. I heard Members talking about parents nearly finding it more affordable for one of them to give up work. That is something we definitely should not be encouraging, especially after fighting so hard for a society that accepts that both parents work. We cannot be going backwards in that sense. I acknowledge the progress and expansion of the national childcare scheme and the increased staff allocations and professional standards. It is brilliant to see that. Those are the positive notes. Now I have to go to some amendments I would like to see. The extra public funding is real and I give credit where it is due. On the ground, however, many childcare providers are not talking about reform or progress. Having spoken and reached out to many of them before speaking today, they are talking about survival. Some are talking about closure, especially in Dublin Bay North. Many of these people are dedicated and have been in the industry for 25 or 30 years. They are struggling at the moment with the energy crisis and other difficulties, especially because they love it so much. When you are working in that industry with children, you have to love it and show your love. I spoke to childcare providers, parents and staff across Dublin Bay North and further afield. I had people reaching out to me from across Ireland on this important topic. I would love to read out some of what they are saying because this debate should not be abstract. I spoke to Elaine Dunne, who has done fantastic work. I have her permission to read out this email: l am writing to you on behalf of [I will not say the name] to express our deep concern about the increasingly unsustainable position that well-established childcare providers now find themselves in under the current Core Funding model. [They are proudly serving] the... community for many years, consistently providing high-quality childcare and maintaining the highest standards of care, safety, and professionalism. However, despite our long-standing commitment and proven track record [in our community], we are now facing extreme difficulties in keeping our doors open. Childcare fees have been frozen since 2018, while Core Funding has increased by only five cents per child. This minimal increase falls far short of covering the rising costs of inflation, utilities, food, insurance, staffing, and compliance. As a direct result, we have been forced to make drastic and heartbreaking cuts, including the closure of our kitchen [and other services] - something that directly impacts children and families. I will not name the provider but can pass the details over to the Minister of State's office. "What is particularly disheartening [for them is they] appear to be penalised under the current system". I know changes are coming and it has been spoken about in this House. We need to speed those up. While we struggle to survive under fee freezes and insufficient funding, a new childcare service... directly across the road from us is free to charge fees of up to €300 per week, along with a non-refundable €800 deposit. This creates a deeply unfair and unbalanced playing field [for this long-established provider in the community]. Core Funding was presented as a promise of sustainability and fairness for all childcare providers. In reality, it has failed to deliver on that promise. I know there is no silver bullet for the majority of issues we face in this Dáil but this should be examined again because: If this continues, many respected and well-run services... will be forced to close, to the detriment of children, parents, staff, and the wider community [they have served for so long]. That is not ideological. That is not political point-scoring. Those are their words. This service has done everything asked of it and is now being squeezed out by a funding model that does not reflect reality. Reaching out to another long-established childcare provider, I received this from Donnycarney in my constituency. The following is the text I received this morning: I don't know what I'm going to do and everything is up in the air. The government think it's going to be a straightforward takeover and it’s not. If they go down this route it is going to cost them a lot more investment than they currently pay out. I removed some of the other text because I could not read it in this Chamber. It goes on to say: This government, even with their investment over the past few years, still has ... the lowest GDP investments into the sector in Europe. We are being trampled into the ground and it feels like nobody is listening. I see the Minister of State taking notes. I know she is listening. I am optimistic that she will take this on board and bring it to the Department. Further on, the person who contacted me says that the fear, uncertainty and sense of being ignored is really affecting her business, her staff and her own mental health. The parents who go to her business are saying the same. One parent wrote to me, saying: We pay €866 a month for the baby and ... [€200] for after school. The broken promise of the €250 cap and the deafening silence on the matter. It was to be actioned within [the first] 150 days ... . Now it’s said it will happen in the lifetime of government . They stated that they think this needs to be changed and asked me to help. Another parent raised another incident, and states that the school has no school hall. This is to do with after-school care. I know it is not directly related to the Bill. Continuing, he says: The children play outside in the rain ... Working parents [already] pay huge amounts in tax and contribute to society. My son is 8 now and I fear he'Il be doing his Junior Cert before this is addressed. It is not unreasonable for parents to be asking that. I have seen some mentions of it in recent announcements in the sense that if you have children in school, there are some schools that provide the service. However, I would love to see it nationwide. Other countries do it, as do some places in Ireland. If parents are dropping their children off to school and the children are already in the school, it would be great to have more established and funded models. I know there is some mention of it in that. After-schools could be facilitated easier, particularly for staff in the schools who would like the extra few bob in their pocket. Another parent stated, "Core funding doesn’t exist in practice." This is another childcare provider from north Dublin. "You won’t find a creche with it fully covering costs." The parent states that the only subsidy that really works is the €2.40 an hour under the national child care scheme and the Government should increase those payments across the board. I welcome the Minister's engagement with my office on this. We had been inundating the previous Minister with parliamentary questions. I have a few of them here. I will not read them out; I will publish them later. In regard to staffing requirements and insurance costs, the SMEs are really struggling, especially the long-established ones that I mentioned earlier. The Bill, especially when it talks about quality, should examine this. It needs to exist with viable services, using the existing ones that are already in place in communities. Without fair funding, the regulation simply drives out good providers. As I mentioned, people are being cut out. Parents do not magically get cheaper childcare. The programme for Government states that this will be examined over the lifetime of the Government. I am aware things take longer. This should be prioritised as there are people who are being forced out of work. We know the current model needs to be changed and the long-established community providers cannot be frozen out or locked out. The fact that the Bill rewards new builds and punishes experience is not fair. There are four things I will request. This is from consulting with the providers. These include reflecting the real costs in the core funding and the hourly subsidy under the national childcare scheme, as suggested to me. In only parts of the system, providers consistently say this works. We must deliver on the €250 cap and I am cautiously optimistic that the Minister of State will do this. It is very important that when a promise is made to the electorate, it is delivered on. If we do not do that, they are broken promises. We are nothing without our word. Supporting after-school must be treated as infrastructure. We should all work from across this House. An rud is fearr liom sa Teach seo ná nuair atá gach duine ag obair le chéile ar na fadhbanna seo. Ceapaim gur cuma leis na daoine taobh amuigh den Teach seo cé atá ag déanamh na rudaí. Tá siad ag iarraidh go bhfuil an obair déanta. Táim tar éis é sin a rá le cúpla fadhb a tháinig chun cinn sa Teach seo. Is bubble é an Teach seo. Nuair atá tú amuigh i do Dháilcheantar féin - tá a fhios ag an Aire Stáit faoi seo - tá daoine ag streachailt sa phobal faoi láthair. Tá praghas gach rud ag dul suas. We should work with a sense that if there is a suggestion that comes in, we should all accept things that need to be done for the betterment of Ireland, accept them quickly and put aside political differences. I really would welcome that.

Sentiment score: 0.13