Does the Minister remember the promise of €200-per-month childcare that vanished into thin air, which he and Fine Gael promised before the election? The problem is that there is no childcare available to parents in any case. In the Blakestown area of Dublin West, we hear that Ready, Steady, Learn, a not-for-profit early learning childcare service catering for 43 children, could close. A parent from the Blanchardstown-Castleknock area contacted me who is a full-time working parent and despite best efforts cannot get any after-school care for her daughter.

Does the Minister agree that private or for-profit childcare cannot work? Can you run a school or college at a profit? No, you cannot, and you cannot do it with childcare either. Parents, the children or the workers will end up paying for the Government's broken promises and lack of investment.

The Deputy is completely ignoring what is after happening over the last number of years. Childcare investment has quadrupled from €260 million in 2015 to €1.37 billion in 2025. This is significant State investment in childcare, along with the affordability supports that underpin it. The Minister, Deputy Foley, is ambitious to continue to do more to support parents with the affordability of childcare. It is unfair to dismiss many small and medium enterprises that provide a really important service in the communities we represent in west Dublin or elsewhere.

I did not dismiss them.

The Deputy dismissed them in how she described them. They provide a really important part of supports for childcare across communities in this country. They also need to be supported in how we manage the budget process.

This is a terrible deflection. I did not mention that. I said there were not enough.