The news of a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza is very welcome. At the same time the kidnapping of five Irish citizens on Wednesday night by Israeli forces in international waters is utterly unacceptable. They include an elected Member of this Dáil, Barry Heneghan. Will there be any repercussions for Israel for kidnapping Irish citizens?

The Tánaiste bought the election with a litany of promises that he has broken. He promised students and their families that he would reduce college fees. They have gone up by €500. He promised that 40,000 homes would be built last year. That proved to be a complete fabrication. He promised tax cuts and spending increases, a combination we warned was not sustainable. He never once told people that the tax cuts would be for developers and that ordinary people would be forgotten. He promised a cost of disability payment, which would finally recognise the enormous costs of having a disability. Not only did he fail to do this but disabled people will be €1,400 worse off because of this budget according to the Disability Federation of Ireland. The Tánaiste promised to tackle child poverty yet according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, this week’s budget will push even more children and more older people into poverty.

During the TV election debate the Tánaiste said the Fine Gael manifesto was proposing that within 100 days of being in Government capping monthly childcare costs per child at €200 per month. He has completely and utterly broken that promise. His promises on childcare have left parents feeling betrayed. He made putting costs for childcare one of the central planks of his election campaign. He has just published his first budget and childcare costs were not reduced by a single cent. I have been contacted by parents who are at breaking point trying to pay these enormous childcare fees. One mother told me she is paying €20,000 a year for her two children. It is simply not sustainable. She was expecting this budget would take some of that pressure off and reduce costs. She feels deeply betrayed by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

There are parents who, as we speak, are asking themselves whether they can afford to go back to work. There are couples all over the country who are wondering if they can afford to have another child because paying thousands in childcare costs is just impossible. They cannot do it. These families feel betrayed by the Tánaiste and his budget. Does he understand why they feel let down? What happened to his promise to cap childcare fees at €200 a month within 100 days of taking office?

First, I share the Deputy’s condemnation of what happened to our five Irish citizens. I have just received confirmation that Deputy Heneghan is back in Ireland. I had a brief message from him to that effect. It seems Israel released parliamentarians first. I know he is Deputy O’Callaghan’s constituency colleague. He is back in Ireland but the remaining Irish citizens will be engaging with our embassy team today. Obviously we are calling for their swift release. We believe it was illegal in terms of how they were detained and I do intend to consider how to pursue that with counterparts.

I join the Deputy in welcoming the very real live prospect of a ceasefire and the fact the United Nations has talked about there being enough food in the region to feed the people of Gaza for three months if we can just get that in and do so urgently. Our aid people will be endeavouring to assist in that.

On college fees and many issues, we were very clear during the election campaign that we were moving back to a one annual budget process. That meant that the one-off measures between September and Christmas were going to be replaced with an annual budget and that we would seek to embed permanent, sustainable, affordable cuts to a number of areas, including education, the cost for business and a variety of other areas. The measure we have taken on student fees is the first instalment of five. I remain committed to the very strong views I have in relation to the cost of education and college fees. We intend to build on that further in the time ahead. Other decisions we made, like extending the renters tax credit which was due to expire this year at a cost of €350 million a year, will directly benefit and help students.

I appreciate we have different views on the measures we have taken around apartments and tax but I believe it is an important viability measure. We will see who is right in time. We have listened to a lot of people in terms of the viability gap. We have taken a number of measures to try to close that gap because there are tens of thousands of apartments with active planning permission today that are not being built and we need them built. We all want more housing supply.

On disability, the Minister for Social Protection has been clear he is working on developing a cost of disability payment. We would like to see that in place for the next budget. However, this year’s budget did see objectively a step change in the investment in disability services. That has been recognised by the likes of Inclusion Ireland. The extra funding of €628 million for disability services from the Minister, Deputy Foley and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, is an important step forward and will make a real difference.

On childcare, we have taken a number of measures. The commitment was to produce a plan within 100 days. All these things were going to be done as part of the budget.