Having limited access to childcare options is inhibiting predominantly women from returning to the workplace and their absence is a loss to the economy. The one thing they need for return to the workplace is simply not available to them. Childcare needs vary from family to family and the Government needs to be dynamic and urgently support the delivery of more childcare options, especially in areas like my own constituency of Dublin Fingal West, which is one of the youngest areas in the country and is rapidly growing.

Supporting the childcare sector to plan and project numbers is key to meeting future demands. The programme for Government references resourcing and transforming the supply management unit within the Department of children to become a forward planning and delivery unit. The aim of this unit, which is very welcome, is to identify areas of need, forecast demand and deliver public supply within the childcare sector. While I very much support this idea and appreciate it will take time to implement, what work is the Government doing now to support the childcare sector to recruit, retain and deliver more childcare places?

I thank Deputy Boland for raising this matter. The Government is fully committed to delivering high quality, affordable and accessible childcare for all families. It is interesting to point out that investment in early learning and care in school-age childcare has quadrupled in the past decade, increasing from €260 million in 2015 to €1.37 billion in 2025. The number of enrolments has increased year on year from 2021 right up to 2023 and 2024. In 2025, the Government will allocate approximately €1.37 billion for early learning and care and school-aged childcare. That is a €261 million, or 24%, increase on last year's funding. This will support the universal ECCE programme, benefiting more than 107,000 children; the access and inclusion model, enabling approximately 7,800 children with disabilities to access ECCE and wider early learning centres, ELCs, both during and outside of term time; the national childcare scheme with funding for an additional 7,500 children on average per week; and €14 million more in subsidised hours. There is also much more.