The Government is closing down early years childhood education facilities throughout the country. In 2019, there were 77 net closures; in 2020, there were 70; in 2021, there were 62; last year, on my last count, there were 80 net closures; and this year they are closing by the week. Currently, early years providers are suffering greatly. They have come to the gates of the Dáil to protest again about what is happening. Yes, the Minister has put €212 million into the sector, but where is it going? Some of these providers are getting less per child now than they did 20 years ago. Money is going to the large chains while the small and medium-sized providers are not getting it. Those providers are going into debt, those workers are being laid off and those children and their parents do not have anywhere in their home towns to send their children to. The Minister shakes his head when asked this question in the House, but these businesses are not closing for the craic. They are not doing it for the good of their health.

We are over time. We are under pressure with time.

The option for parents to send their kids to these places is being lost.

Significantly fewer childcare services have closed at this time this year than in any of the previous years Deputy Tóibín has cited. That is because of the huge investment the State has put in. It was €259 million in the first year of core funding. Now, as we move to the second year of core funding, there is an additional €28 million. This 11% increase in core funding in year 2 is designed to recognise administrative costs and non-staff overheads and particularly recognising the additional challenges that small sessional services face there is an additional €7 million specifically for them. We have listened to the sector, heard its concerns and we have designed something specifically for those smaller sessional services as part of how that €28 million has been allocated. To obtain that funding, to be part of core funding, what we ask is the fee freeze which allows parents to benefit from the increase in the national childcare scheme.

There is a gap between what the Minister says and the experience of the providers.

I am moving on. I call Deputy Mattie McGrath.

The Federation of Early Childhood Providers launched this morning a report on voices from the front-line service providers. It identifies key challenges and opportunities for Ireland's early learning and care and school-age childcare sectors. Will the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth please engage with and listen to them? They are under enormous pressure. I was involved in setting up a naíonra in Caisleán Nua, and I salute the management and staff there and all the groups around the country. The Minister seems to have gone for all the big industries here and the major chains, and the small groups are threatened and squeezed and unable because of his policies. They are not able and they are losing control of their own units. Without those services, families will not be able to work, and we know there is pressure on workers and families, so they will not be able to go to work. I also understand from some of them today outside the gates - and they were in great spirits, albeit very sad and downbeat - that the Minister threatened to cut their funding if they came and protested. We live in a democracy. Will the Minister please support these people and not demonise them?

That is entirely untrue, just to put that on the record. What is important to say is that I have engaged very extensively with all the organisations in the early years sector. I meet them regularly in the forum. I have, on many occasions this year and last year, met the particular group protesting outside the Dáil today. I see the Deputy has been briefed with the report. I have not had the opportunity to read it. I will of course look through it. Essentially, though, as I said in response to Deputy Tóibín, we put an additional €259 million into the sector last year. That will grow this year to €287 million, and we have allocated a section of that towards those small sessional services. What is being proposed, bringing the early childhood care and education capitation up to €120, will benefit the big providers. They will be the ones who will benefit most from that, not the small services. So the solutions being put forward are solutions that will benefit only the big services.