Unaffordable fees are crippling families. Parents, in many cases, pay the equivalent of a mortgage each month. Across the State, as the Taoiseach knows, there are nearly 50,000 children on waiting lists denied a childcare place. Many parents find themselves relying on family members to mind their children while they are at work. Some are forced to cut back on their hours or consider leaving their jobs entirely. Now we hear that mounting cost pressures have seen nearly 1,000 early childcare facilities close their doors over the past six years.

The Government committed to reviewing core funding to operators but that has not happened and it has had devastating consequences. Of course, it is just another promise broken by the Government. The news of these childcare closures will come as no surprise to the tens of thousands of parents desperately seeking a childcare place for their child but it will add to their stress. The childcare crisis is one of capacity but it is also one of affordability and the Government has done a very poor job of tackling these persistent issues. The job of government is to build a strong, sustainable childcare system that is affordable and that is good for children, good for society and good for an economy where people can have a good work and family life. However, the Government has not shown any ambition, vision or urgency to deliver this childcare system that working families so desperately need. The Taoiseach has known for a very long time that the Government needs to invest in buildings and sites to increase childcare spaces but it has dithered, it has delayed and now we have tens of thousands of children waiting.

The big problem is that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are very good on promises but very bad when it comes to delivery. The Taoiseach promised a roadmap to €200 per month childcare within the first 100 days of his Government. Parents waited more than 300 days and what they got was a rehashed pledge to deliver an affordability roadmap sometime between 2027 and 2029. Children needing a childcare space now will have started school by then. Does the Taoiseach really think that hard-pressed parents can wait another two or possibly three years before the Government even produces a plan to cut their childcare bill and wait longer for its delivery? More children in primary school-----

Deputy, that clock is incorrect. It was reset by mistake. I have the clock in front of me, but I will give you an extra 20 seconds on the basis of that clock.

What is that all about?

It was just reset by mistake, so your time is up.

It is four minutes.

Four minutes is up, actually. You have 20 seconds to finish up, Deputy.

The Taoiseach used half the time to make his point of order.

The Taoiseach, of course, sabotaged my efforts but there you go.

Which question was it that he sabotaged?

You have 20 seconds, Deputy.

The nub of it is, the Taoiseach promised affordable childcare and he has not delivered it. He failed to produce the childcare places that are necessary and I would like to know what he is going to do about this in the here and now, not in 2027 or 2028.

Thank you, Deputy.

Families are struggling, children are left without places. What is the Taoiseach's response now? Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle.

Thank you, Deputy. I call the Taoiseach to respond.

Given that it was raised, I did receive the Deputy's correspondence this morning in respect of Bord Bia. Bord Bia has been performing exceptionally well this year, last year and over the past number of years. If we look at 2020, there were exports of over €13 billion in foodstuffs. This year it is €19 billion. So, there are extraordinary, impressive outcomes and results in the export of foodstuffs including beef. We export beef and Irish food to 75 countries around the world. I am just back from China where I saw Bord Bia executives marketing Irish food very effectively and very efficiently in Mandarin. Do not try to drag down a good organisation.

Be very careful.

It is not about the organisation.

Do not try to drag it down now. Let us not go for this populist, low-level activity. Let us not go like herd instincts-----

Childcare, Taoiseach. Childcare places.

----- by jumping everywhere and going after people wrongly without proper perspective or understanding of the food industry, which has been a good success story for Ireland over the past number of years and continues to be.

So, is Brazilian beef okay?

Your leader asked a question, Deputy.

Bord Bia has been one of the better State agencies and our food companies, which are global by the way, all over Europe and all over the world-----

That is what global means.

You had your chance, Deputy, please.

Let us not undermine them just for the sake of chasing other people for votes and for popularity.

In respect of childcare, the Government is very involved in childcare and the State is very involved in childcare in a variety of ways in terms of subsidies, in terms of frozen fees and in terms of investment, capital investment in private and community childcare as well as yesterday announcing a new State childcare capital investment programme which will significantly increase childcare places over the coming years.

We understand the pressures that households and families are under in respect of access to childcare and the cost of childcare, but we have looked at it on a number of fronts in terms of fees, in terms of investment and expansion, in terms of the workforce and in terms of significantly increasing wages for those working in childcare. We acknowledge there is more to do in that regard. In 2024, we saw a five-year high in new services opening and a five-year low in pre-school closures. About 357 services opened, 131 closed. That is a net increase of 226. That positive momentum continued in 2025. Data to the end of November last year showed about 372 openings and 122 closures, which is a net increase of 250.

The growth is being matched by rising participation. The number of children using early learning and childcare has grown by 35% between 2020 and 2025. Looking at the CSO data, for example, childcare prices have been falling on aggregate across the entire country. Different parts of the country would be higher than others in cities in particular but there is a broader story to be told. The situation is that we do work with childcare providers. It is challenging and there are tensions obviously, as there were particularly when we sought to limit fees. There has been huge investment to enable that to happen. The national childcare scheme supports about 277,000 children in 2026, which is 27,000 more than last year. Income-assessed subsidy thresholds under the childcare scheme will be increased to €34,000 for lower income households and €68,000 for the upper threshold.

Thank you, Taoiseach.

The early childhood care and education programme, ECCE, continues for over 105,000 children, providing two years of free preschool.

Thank you. Deputy McDonald to respond.

Obviously I have hit a bit of a nerve there with the Taoiseach. Maybe it is just me, but I do not think a chair of Bord Bia whose company was importing Brazilian beef stands on credible ground. That is a view that I hold and I know that will be held by many farmers and people beyond that.

On the childcare issue, the Government is not serious about providing the right number of places. There are 50,000 children now waiting for a place. The Taoiseach's big idea is to provide only 800 places over the next number of years.

That is a joke and a bad one. The Taoiseach has made no reference to his promise of €200 childcare. He has obviously ditched that but he does not have the integrity to just state it plainly. He wants people to wait years more for a plan that might deliver that.

I thank Deputy McDonald.

Finally, he has done nothing on core funding. He had a specific promise in the programme for Government to review core funding, and to raise it, but there was not a gíog from him.

I thank the Deputy and call on the Taoiseach to respond.

The Taoiseach is not serious about childcare. He is quite happy to let working families struggle and to have children left behind.

I call on the Taoiseach to respond. I thank Deputy McDonald.

Hear, hear.

This Government and the previous one did more for childcare in the Past five years than any previous Governments. There has been progress along the way but there was very substantial progress in the Past four to five years. Deputy McDonald does not have it within her to acknowledge that. Core funding increased by 19% under the budget 2026 to over €436 million. That will enable us to maintain fees at 2021 levels in year four.

Some 1,000 providers have closed. Did the Taoiseach miss that?

It will also support providers with the cost of the new employment regulation order pay rates and then prepare for year five enhancements, including new funding to reduce the maximum fee cap. We have always said that reducing the fees to €200 was a five-year plan. It will happen. We are not ditching anything. We are committed to that and we are going to do it but it is over the lifetime of the Government. That was always made very clear.

I thank the Taoiseach.

Some 93% of eligible providers have now signed up to the fourth year of core funding.

I thank the Taoiseach.

There is good news on recruitment in terms of a continued 10% year-on-year increase in the growth of the workforce as well.