Today we are focusing on the cost-of-living crisis and rightly so. We have seen massive and outrageous hikes in energy bills that are hitting households very hard but which are compounded by pre-existing high costs arising out of the housing crisis, where we see people having to spend a huge proportion of their income on rental and mortgage costs but also on childcare costs, which are referred to by many as a second mortgage.

There are so many households with children struggling to pay for childcare. Today, I want to focus on childcare. When we describe childcare as a cost, and when parents see it as a cost, that is missing the point. This should be an investment in our future, in our society and in our children. Without the levels of public investment in childcare that we so sorely need inequality in Ireland is starting the day a child is born, which is not how it should be in a true republic. Children deserve an equal start.

The Labour Party, in particular through Labour Women, has been pushing for an equal early years campaign to ensure that children in Ireland will get an equal start and that parents will be freed from the heavy burden of paying privately for childcare, which remains so expensive and is such a huge cost for so many households. We know that in Ireland public funding for childcare remains a fraction of what is invested in other European countries. We know that UNICEF has recommended that 1% of GDP be invested in early years education and care. Although funding has increased and that is welcome, we still fall far short of that target by approximately 0.7%. For this reason, I have been calling for a Donogh O'Malley moment in early years education and care. Just as 50 years ago he, as Minister, introduced the concept of free secondary school places for every child as a right, thereby building prosperity for our country and building the investment in our children, so too should we now be seeking to implement and introduce a free childcare place, a guaranteed early years education and care place, for every child to give every child in Ireland an equal start.

Parents need to see a solution to the crisis of childcare they are facing and the State needs to do much more to address that. Most of all, children deserve that equal start. The Minister will have heard, as I do every day in our constituency of Dublin Bay South, that such is the challenge in even securing places in childcare facilities, let alone affordable places, parents are being asked to pay in advance for days they may not even avail of and they are booking childcare places long before children are born. Many who do manage to secure a place find their childcare bill exceeds what they are paying in mortgage or rent. The core funding model that is being developed - I know that is under way - will change things, but what has been committed to will simply not do enough to address rising costs and the shortage of places.

The system is failing providers and educators in childcare settings. We know from SIPTU's Big Start campaign that early years educators are demoralised, underpaid and, indeed, undervalued. Many are not paid a living wage. Does the Minister agree that we need a public childcare model in Ireland? Will the Government guarantee an early years place for every child and fair pay and conditions for staff?

I wish Deputy Bacik the very best in her new role as leader of the Labour Party, which is a huge honour, privilege and responsibility. We look forward to working with her in that new role and we wish her and the Labour Party well. Our democratic system is critical to everything we do. A leadership position is an honour to hold.

I expressed concern earlier that if we just see the solution to our energy crisis as being a cut to every form of tax revenue, that presents difficulties. One of the areas to which the Government is committed in the run-in to the budget process in terms of the provision of additional resources is the area of childcare. My answer to the Deputy's question about whether we should prioritise that among the variety of different priorities we have is "Yes". I think we are right to do so. It is very difficult now for young people to see how they can raise a family here because of the cost of housing, the pressures in the workplace and all sorts of other pressures. It is a real challenge. We need to make it easier and to support them at that critical time. The strength of the support at that time will bear fruit as those children grow up having had the best possible love and care in their early years. How exactly we do that is the issue. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, will have a critical role in that regard. As part of the budgetary process, he will need to have a clear discussion with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform on how to get those resources and how best to develop a new childcare system. I am sure Deputy Bacik will acknowledge that the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has already done a huge amount for people working in the sector, for example in recognising why caring work is always the least well-paid work and what it is in our society that does not see that work as the most important work.

From a personal perspective, I always think we have to be careful if we are going to have a Donogh O'Malley moment. We have to remember the right of parents to make decisions. It is up to each family and parents to decide what is best. There are many parents who, for various reasons, decide that they will raise children in their own homes. We have to be careful not to forget them in the supports that are needed and make sure they are not discriminated against in terms of whatever measures we put in place. My sense of what the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is working on is that it is along the lines, and within the scale of ambition, of what Deputy Bacik has spoken about. We want that sort of moment whereby we make it really easy in this country for people to be able to raise a child in the best way possible and we ensure it fits with the various different family circumstances. That is going to be a budget measure; it will not be introduced within the timelines mentioned in regard to other measures spoken about today. That discussion would be well placed with the Minister at the relevant Oireachtas committees in advance of the budget.

I thank the Minister for his kind words. It is indeed an honour to have been elected as leader of the Labour Party. It is also a big responsibility and a challenge. I look forward to ensuring we grow the support for that strong labour voice and message that is so sorely needed. It is a strong centre-left and red-green voice that seeks to deliver progressive and positive change and a more equal society and, as part of that, to deliver on change for childcare.

I note what the Minister said, but parents need to see a change urgently. We know that care work is very gendered in our society, that 98% of those working as early years professionals are women and that they remain undervalued and underpaid. We need to see urgent change on that. We also need real change to ensure parental choice. Of course it is about parental choice, but currently high fees and lack of places are forcing parents to have no choice and, as such, parents cannot, for example, return to work. We heard this morning about a woman who is struggling to find a childcare place in Dublin. She will not able to return to work because there is not an affordable childcare place available to her. Parents have no choices and children currently do not have equality.

My own view which, I think, is matched in the Government is that the State needs to take a stronger role here, perhaps by way of a State agency in order that we are not just relying on the market. While many of the private operators are doing a really good job in terms of the excellent facilities they provide, this area requires a lot of State engagement, for example by supporting community initiatives in terms of how early years care and childcare facilities are managed and presented. We do this better when we do it on a collective basis. Where there is no choice because childcare is so expensive and it is difficult to access a place, State planning and organisation will be one of the characteristics of the change that comes.