2026-02-26

Early childhood education and care in Dublin Fingal West is no longer a gap in planning. It is a failure of prioritisation. Dublin Fingal West has one of the highest concentrations of private childcare provision in the country, yet one of the lowest of community childcare provision. That imbalance has not happened by accident. It is the result of the State stepping back and leaving provision to the market, and families are paying the price as a consequence. Across Dublin Fingal West, particularly in the rapidly growing towns of Rush and Lusk, thousands of houses have been built and young families and couples have moved in, yet the essential public infrastructure that is community childcare that should accompany that growth has not kept pace with the development. I receive constant emails from parents in my constituency who cannot easily access early education and school age childcare. Parents are on waiting lists before their child is even born. They cut their working hours because the fees are too high. They are forced to take whatever place they can get, not the place that best supports their child. It is not a functioning system. It is patchwork. Private providers no doubt play an important role but early childcare cannot be left almost entirely to private operations in a rapidly expanding area like Dublin Fingal West. My constituency has been left with one of the lowest levels of community childcare provision in the country. That is not equity; that is neglect. What makes it even more frustrating is that solutions are available. There are suitable sites in both Rush and Lusk that have planning permission. The land exists, the demand is clear, and the demographics are undeniable. If the Government truly intends to expand State-led childcare provision, then Dublin Fingal West is exactly where the commitment should be tested. It is the perfect canary in the coalmine. The Government speaks frequently about building State-led early education models but families in my constituency do not see that ambition reflected on the ground. They see housing developments completed before the childcare facilities are delivered. They see population growth without the matching public services. They see political spin without urgency. Early education and care is not an optional extra but essential infrastructure. It enables parents, particularly women, to remain in the workforce. It supports early childhood development. It strengthens communities. When the State fails to provide it adequately, families bear the burden, so today, I am asking the Government to commit to prioritising Dublin Fingal West for State-led community-based childcare facilities. Will it engage with Fingal County Council and the Fingal childcare committee immediately on the identified sites in Rush and Lusk? Will it acknowledge that leaving one of the youngest populations in the country with one of the lowest levels of community childcare provision is simply not acceptable? Dublin Fingal West cannot continue to be an afterthought in national childcare planning. Families deserve more than promises; they deserve delivery.

I thank the Deputy for raising this Topical Issue matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Norma Foley. The Minister would like to thank Deputy O'Donoghue for raising this important issue and for offering her the opportunity to respond. I will deliver her response to the Deputy. Improving access to quality and affordable early learning and childcare is a key priority of Government. Early learning and childcare capacity is increasing. Data from the annual early years sector profile shows that the estimated number of enrolments increased by 25% over the last three years. I believe that Fingal increased by 20% in the same period. The reality is that demand for early learning and childcare remains higher than available supply in certain parts of the country, particularly for younger children. A forward planning model is in development which will be central to the Department's plans to achieve the policy goals set out in the programme for Government to build an affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood learning and childcare system, with State-led facilities adding capacity. That 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. That will be done at local area level. The Department continues to support the ongoing development an resourcing of core funding, which has given rise to a significant expansion of places since the scheme was first introduced. Core funding, which is in its fourth programme year, funds services based on the number of places available. This provides stability to services, and reduces the risk associated with opening a new service or expanding an already existing service. The Government is also supporting the expansion of capacity through capital funding. The building blocks extension grant scheme is designed to increase capacity in the one to three-year-old, pre-early childhood care and education age range for full daycare. That is to support the parents who the Deputy specifically mentioned in his own contribution. Core funding partner services could apply for capital funding to physically extend their premises or, in the case of community services, to construct or purchase new premises. The scheme will deliver up to 1,500 full-day care places for the one to three-year-old age category. The Minister recently announced €135 million in capital investment in buildings for high-quality, accessible State-led early learning and childcare. The process will begin this year with investment in buildings in what will be a ground-breaking initiative for this Government. Capital funding will be used to acquire and-or fit out the building, depending on requirements. Services will be operated on a not-for-profit basis by third parties. Where a project is being considered without an operator already in place, the Department will run a process to identify an appropriate not-for-profit operator, with capacity to operate a high-quality service. There will be a particular focus in the new State-led facilities on providing places for one to three-year-olds because this is where the need is greatest, with scope for these children to progress in the service until they start school. The aim of delivering additional supply of this kind in suitable locations will include both rural areas and urban areas which are not well served at the moment. Additional supply in areas of disadvantage is another priority because early learning can have really positive impacts on children at risk of disadvantage. Another factor to consider is the need to rebalance supply in some areas where there is a high concentration of private supply but very low levels of community childcare. That is what the Deputy outlined in his contribution, with regard to his constituency, Dublin Fingal West.

I thank the Minister of State and welcome what she said. Dublin Fingal West would be the perfect area to roll out a scheme like that. I welcome that capital funding will be used to acquire or fit out the buildings. That would certainly help in my constituency. I would also like to address the Government's commitments to reducing childcare costs to €200 a month over the term of the Dáil. That is obviously welcome. However, we must be very clear about the language we use here. When we talk about cheaper childcare, we reduce this sector to a bargain bin service. It starts sounding like a Ryanair advertisement where the lowest fare wins. That cannot be what early childhood education and care becomes. Affordability does matter - of course it does - but quality must be number one. I am glad the Minister of State acknowledges that in her statement. It is worrying to see providers threaten a judicial review on the employment regulation order, ERO, in the sector. That shows how unstable the sector is. A Band-Aid is holding the sector together. We do not need a patch. We need to rip off the Band-Aid and have a transformative moment, like Donogh O'Malley bringing in free secondary education or Niamh Bhreathnach getting rid of fees and opening third level to a generation. Those decisions were not tinkering; they were bold and brave. They recognised education as a public good. I urge this Government to recognise early education in the same vein and start a transition to a fully public childcare model so that parents have real choice and every child has access to quality, accessible childcare.

I am glad to hear that some of the policies the Minister is pursuing and introducing may be of benefit to the Deputy in his constituency, but most importantly, the parents and children in his constituency. Up to eight buildings will be selected for investment this year, and the State-led initiative will provide thousands of places up to 2030 using the €135 million provided in the national development plan. The level of investment will ramp up over the lifetime of Government. The initial approach is on purchasing and refurbishing buildings given that this is a faster route to delivery in the short term. However, the option of new building facilities will also be considered over subsequent years. The Deputy highlighted two specific sites in Rush and Lusk that would be worth looking at from this perspective. The Department is assessing sites and buildings and, where required, will seek expressions of interest from operators to deliver State-led services. Local city and county childcare committees will be supporting the development of these projects in the first instance. Community early learning and childcare operators, local authorities, developers or others who might have some suitable premises, projects or sites should, therefore, first contact their local city and county childcare committee. I would encourage the Deputy to put the owners of those sites in touch with his own contacts locally. Separately, following on from the success of the building blocks extension grant scheme, a further scheme will open for applications later this year. The round of capital funding will focus on funding extensions to existing premises to allow for increased numbers of children to be offered places on a full-time basis. Community and private providers that are core funding partner services will be eligible to apply for this scheme, and the Minister expects to announce details of this next building block scheme in the coming weeks. On some of the Deputy's comments, I will firmly put on the record that the Government is absolutely committed to reducing childcare costs. Affordability is really important from the parents' perspective but so too are accessible childcare and ensuring that we have the right amount of childcare in the right locations. Quality needs to be paramount. In a previous role, I was Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and signed into law one of the EROs the Deputy referenced. I wish to put on record my support for that process.