This morning many crèches across the country closed their doors for three days due to frustration with Government policy. As we speak, and as the Taoiseach knows, providers are now protesting at the gates of the Dáil. Of course, the big losers in this situation are thousands of families who will experience significant disruption this week - parents left in the lurch, seeking alternative childcare arrangements so that they can get out the door to work. The reality is that the provision of childcare services is in crisis and that has been the case for some time. While the Government has gone some way, its policy has failed to make the scale of improvement that families are crying out for and for the majority of families, childcare remains just too expensive.

In last year's budget the Government did not go far enough to reduce costs, so we still see parents paying the equivalent of a second mortgage in childcare fees. These massive fees are an incredible financial burden on parents at the best of times, not to mind during the most serious cost-of-living crisis in 40 years.

The chronic lack of childcare spaces is also a serious problem that hits families every year. The capacity crisis is a source of enormous stress for parents right across the country. No parent should be forced to have the hard conversation about whether or not one of them might have to give up work because they have no childcare options.

At the heart of this crisis is the prolonged underinvestment by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments that has pushed childcare services to breaking point, sustained poor levels of pay for childcare professionals and severely undermined the viability of childcare providers. Tá géarchéim i gcúram leanaí in Éirinn faoi láthair. Tá táillí ollmhóra á n-íoc ag tuismitheoirí fós agus bíonn go leor daoine ag streachailt le háiteanna a aimsiú dá bpáistí. Caithfidh an Rialtas infheistíocht a dhéanamh sa bhuiséad chun costas cúraim leanaí a laghdú go suntasach.

The pathway to a fairer, fit-for-purpose childcare sector is greater public investment. It is now clearer than ever that the Government must increase investment, bring down fees dramatically for parents and guarantee fair pay for childcare professionals. This is how the burden can be lifted from families and how we can deliver childcare places to the level required so that no child or family is left behind. Of course, this has to be done in a planned, strategic, incremental manner, but the first step has to be to increase the affordability and accessibility of childcare services. This is essential if we want a modern, agile and resilient economy, if we want to ensure a better quality of life for families and, most importantly, if we want to ensure that every child has the best start in early education. It is time for the Government to stop tinkering around the edges of the crisis and step up with real ambition.

Last year, the Government committed to cutting childcare fees by 50% over two budgets. That means an additional cut of 25% in budget 2024. Will the Taoiseach honour that commitment? I put it to him that he should, in fact, go further than that commitment. I also ask him to ensure an urgent resumption of talks to focus efforts on ensuring that childcare professionals get the wages that they deserve. Will the Taoiseach ensure in the budget that whatever necessary finances are required to make that a reality, the Government will also provide for that?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. As she knows, there is a childcare and early years education strike happening today. Of the 4,000 childcare providers in the State, we understand that 5%, or probably fewer, are participating in the action today. That is important to point out. The action is being supported by only one organisation, the Federation of Early Childhood Providers. We acknowledge absolutely that there are real challenges and pressures in the childcare and early education sector. The administrative burden has increased, putting a lot of pressure on the time providers and professionals have to provide their service. Of course, funding for any service is always a challenge. We acknowledge those things too but of course they can be resolved. We believe the best way to resolve them is through co-operation and the early years forum, which the Minister attends and which met as recently as last week. We do not believe this action by one organisation is warranted. It is causing great inconvenience for parents, particularly those who have had to take time off work or even annual leave to look after their children while the strike by this particular group is under way.

The Government has prioritised investment in childcare like no other. Over €1 billion per year is now being invested in childcare and early-years education. That will, of course, increase for next year in the budget, but this has to be done within the parameters of a 6.2% overall increase in spending, to which I believe the Deputy's party has signed up and agreed. She might clarify whether that is the case.

We have three objectives when it comes to childhood and early-years care in Ireland: to make it more affordable, to make it more available and to ensure that quality and standards improve. We reduced the cost of childcare for the vast majority of parents by roughly 25% last year. I know this has been very welcome and has really helped with many household budgets. We seek to reduce the cost further in the forthcoming budget. We are looking at ways to make it more available. In my constituency and many other parts of the country, getting a place at all can be a big challenge. We are looking at interventions to increase availability over the next couple of years.

We are raising standards and quality all the time. One of the ways we are doing that is by improving the terms and conditions of people who work in the sector. There is now an employment regulation order ensuring there is a salary scale and proper minimum terms and conditions for this sector. About 70% of childcare and early education professionals received a pay increase last year, and I would imagine this will be the case in the year to come. This is an area the Government is committed to and is working on. It is prioritising affordability, availability and quality and we do not think the action that is taking place, which is supported by only a minority of childcare providers, is warranted.

I thank the Taoiseach for that response. Notwithstanding that this is a minority-led dispute, as he says, I am sure he will accept that those concerned do in many ways speak for the entirety of the sector, certainly for an awful lot of families, who still experience childcare costs that are too high or who in many instances experience a complete lack of availability of childcare places. Therefore, issues of affordability and capacity still loom large.

I asked the Taoiseach whether he would honour his commitment to reduce childcare fees by a further 25% in this year's budget. I would like a straight answer to that. I also asked the Taoiseach about the pay for childcare professionals. He indicated correctly that there has been some progress made on this, but I put it to him that if he wants to ensure sustainable capacity, radical change needs to happen in terms of the career paths of childcare professionals and their levels of pay. It is not sufficient to say there are now minimum scales and that we have made minimal improvements; you really have to go at this, and there has to be a resource, a pot of money, provided for in the budget for that also.

I thank the Deputy. It remains the Government's objective to reduce the cost of childcare by 50%. We set that out some time ago. We are halfway there already. We also need to invest in capacity because we also need to ensure there are more places available. We also need to invest in quality, and that includes better pay for staff, which of course has to be funded, at least in part, by the public purse.

Exactly how much we can dedicate to each of these three objectives has to be negotiated between now and budget day with the involvement of the concerned Ministers. It would be useful to know, and I appreciate Deputy McDonald might not be able to answer now but perhaps she could at a later date, whether Sinn Féin supports this action. Only about 5% or less of the providers in the sector are taking part. Does Sinn Féin think more should? Would the party like to see more parents inconvenienced-----

I would like to see the Government fund the sector.

-----by having the groups that are not backing the action doing so?

I know the Deputy will ask many questions between now and budget day about how much money we will spend on various priorities. She might let us know at some point whether Sinn Féin is signing up to the Government's decision, made for good, logical and important long-term economic reasons, not to increase spending by more than 6.2% next year.

Is this questions to the Opposition?