The Tánaiste and the Minister mentioned core funding for childcare. However, neither mentioned the crisis created by the current core funding proposals. Since those proposals were published, 21 childcare providers have closed their doors. It is estimated by the Federation of Early Childhood Providers that 260 providers will close their doors by the end of next year. If this happens, it will mean 1,000 childcare providers will have closed their doors since 2017. That is an incredible situation. What is happening is reducing the options that parents have. It is also pushing up prices because there is less supply in the market. One provider I spoke to said that she remained open throughout the pandemic but that she has come to a decision to close the doors after 15 years because of Government mistreatment.

She said that it is nauseating to see big providers so lavishly boosted by the Government while smaller providers, which are the bedrock of our communities, are snubbed. Will the Minister reverse the damage done to small early childhood care and education, ECCE, providers in the State?

The Government provided huge support to the childcare sector during the crisis through a range of funding mechanisms, particularly through the availability of the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS. That supported the amazing work done by childcare providers in staying open for the most vulnerable children and children of essential workers, even during some of the toughest times of the crisis. It is also demonstrated by the fact that, in 2021, we had the lowest number of closures in the sector for a significant number of years. The Government is now bringing forward a major core funding scheme of €221 million, an investment which we have never seen in the sector, that will target supporting the capacity of services across all parts of the sector. It will deliver the much-needed increase in the pay of the workers who did so much during and before the pandemic.