The recruitment crisis in the childcare sector is reaching crisis point. The Government must bring forward measures to assist managers and childcare operators to retain staff. Only last week, parents of 59 children in Tobercurry, County Sligo, were shocked to hear of the closure of the local crèche called Lollipop Lane. Many private operators and some community operators are choosing to leave the sector or refocus their services due to the difficulty in the childcare sector, which is a business decision. There are serious challenges such as staff retention, staff exhaustion due to the nature of the work and a lack of investment in the sector to keep services operating. The sector is ever-changing and there is no one set model, but until these issues are dealt with at a national level, services will struggle across the board. We must address these issues to ensure we can retain the number of places for children. Parents are frustrated and many will have to rethink their work arrangements. I hope this will be resolved.

I thank Deputy Feighan for raising this important issue. In part because of full employment and the fact there are more people at work in Ireland than ever before, there is no sector of the economy, whether public or private, well paid or poorly paid, that is not struggling to recruit and retain staff currently. Childcare and early years education is one of those. To help with the issue, the Government has put in place a new employment regulation order for childcare professionals and early educators, which gives them a guaranteed minimum pay level above the minimum wage pay scale and additional terms and conditions above what is required by law. I hope that will help. The other area we can take some action in is work permits, allowing more people to come from overseas to work in the sector.