The last decade has seen a big shift in public policy towards childcare in this country. The State now recognises that the first five years are a critical developmental time for young children and has built a range of supports for parents and children so they can give their children the best start in life. As part of those supports, the State now seeks to make early learning and care accessible and affordable. There has been real progress in recent years, including the doubling of investment in early years education, the halving of childcare costs and the huge increase in the number of parents using the national childcare scheme. All those numbers are going in the right direction. The progress is only as good as the political will behind it, however. Much of the sector and many parents are looking at the new programme for Government and asking where that political went.

The new programme for Government makes no commitment to and absolutely no mention of creating a legal right to the two early childhood care and education, ECCE, years. This is despite that commitment being in both of the manifestos of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Where did the commitment go? Did the Independents ask the Government to drop it, did the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform get involved or did the Government just forget all about it? At a time when the loss of childcare professionals from the sector is a key threat to increasing capacity, the programme for Government merely commits to a business-as-usual approach to pay increases for staff.

When it comes to the development of a public model of childcare, a policy change that was absolutely central to the general election debates only four months ago, the programme for Government could not be more vague. There is a promise of an action plan but no timeline and no specific numbers. It is a long way from Fine Gael's commitment to 30,000 public childcare places by the end of 2030.

I am not fully clear what the Taoiseach's own position is on the concept of the public model of childcare. That is at the heart of this. We have made a lot of progress but we have still to take that most important step and recognise that only the State can guarantee access to childcare in areas where private or community services have not been established. A public model of early learning and care is the final step that brings together the various reforms that have been undertaken over the last number of years. It is this which the new programme for Government fails to recognise.

Will the Taoiseach commit to legislating to ensure that every child has a legal right to the two years of the ECCE programme? Does he believe that the work childcare professionals do is as important as that of teachers and that the State needs to pay them in a way that recognises this? Does he agree that a public model of childcare, working alongside private and community providers, is the best way of ensuring that all children and parents have access to affordable and accessible childcare wherever they live in our country?

I will start by acknowledging the work the Deputy did when he was the Minister responsible for this area in the last Government for close to five years. I hope he acknowledges the commitment of the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael parties, with the Green Party, to the issue of childcare during the last Government when it dealt substantially with pay and conditions and money was allocated to successive Ministers for public expenditure in respect of the agreement with the trade unions on pay and conditions. The unions acknowledged that at the time. There was the freeze on increases in the cost of childcare and there was very significant investment in childcare itself.

It struck me that when Members are in opposition they talk very nobly and are principled about the public childcare system, but I do not see great models. I remember talking to the Social Democrats about this in our preliminary meeting. There was no detail. I remember people saying to me that it would be done gradually, on a phased basis, and that an inventory or audit must be done first. The problem is that it is a bit more complex than that. We can all commit to a public model but if one is committing to that, there is an obligation to outline it. What would we do with community play groups? Would the State take them over? Would the State take over the private sector provision? It could be done in a different way. It could be done with special needs first and children with additional needs. There have been Green Papers as far back as the late 1990s suggesting that the State and the Department of Education should be more involved in the provision of early-based education for children with special needs. The Department did get involved in the syllabus, the curriculum, Síolta and all of that, as well as other aspects.

There is an onus. It is great to make the great announcement but, with respect, the Deputy was in government for the last four and a half years. No model came forward to me about a public model for childcare because the Deputy had to deal with the realities - the fiscal reality and budget realities. As Minister, he made a lot of progress in respect of childcare, as we all did collectively, but we need to do an awful lot more. A fundamental call needs to be made. How do we deal with the existing structures? Fianna Fáil created the ECCE scheme at the time and it has been expanded. The childcare model has evolved from when it was originally in the Department of Justice through the NOW programme. It has been expanded dramatically through childcare county committees and through different iterations. It is now in the Department of children. To be frank, the answer as regards increased resources, increased expansion of places and more resources to try to decrease the cost to parents is "Yes".

I thank the Taoiseach. From my experience over the past four years, I am well aware of those complexities but I am also of the strong belief that if we just continue to pump money into the existing system and continue our reliance on the existing system, we are not going to be able to deliver the sea change we need to ensure every child has access to the quality early learning and care he or she needs.

There seemed to have been an agreement across political parties during the general election, but the desire and opportunity to provide leadership at the start of a new Government's term is not apparent in the programme for Government.

Yesterday, in response to a question from Deputy McDonald on special education, the Taoiseach cited the constitutional right to primary education. However, there is no right in the Constitution or in legislation to the two years of the early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme. The Taoiseach's party promised that in its manifesto and Fine Gael promised it in its manifesto but there is no reference to it in the programme for Government. That is part of the State taking parental involvement in the delivery of-----.

Thank you, Deputy. Time is up. Just before the Taoiseach begins his response, I will mention that we will have a minute's silence after Leader's Questions to mark the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine.

The immediate issue is primarily the allocation of resources and also working through what we mean by public health model and how we integrate it with the school-based model for children from the age of four and a half or four years upwards. That is the big question. We then have to ask about the funding implications of that and identify how much would it cost and how we would plan, in terms of the overall allocation of resources, to give effect to it. That is work that can be done. It could usefully be done by an Oireachtas committee in respect of childcare, just like we did in terms of healthcare and other areas in the past. It needs a fairly detailed analysis and engagement with all of the stakeholders in the area of childcare.

We can create legal rights and constitutional rights, but, fundamentally, the real meat is in the provision of resources, with structures and systems that give the desired outcome of access to childcare places for everybody who requires it.