72. Deputy Keira Keogh asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if her Department has assessed the impact that the lack of affordable childcare could have on labour market participation, particularly among women; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [65982/26]

The Government recognises that early learning and childcare are key supports to enable parents to participate in the labour market, education and their community.

There is a large and well-established body of international evidence that demonstrates the economic benefits of high-quality, affordable and accessible early learning and childcare. It is associated with broader societal impact through supporting economic activity, including greater workforce participation, particularly among women.

In addition to this, the Department part funds the Economic and Social Research Institute’s research and development on the updated Simulating Welfare, Income Tax Childcare and Health Policies (SWITCH) model. Their research has highlighted that the National Childcare Scheme is a progressive measure that improves the affordability of early learning and childcare in Ireland and improves opportunities to take up paid work.

Since the introduction of the National Childcare Scheme in 2019, the participation of women in the labour market has increased from 55.8% in 2019 to 61.3% in Q2 2026. It should also be noted that in the last five years, Ireland has made good progress in addressing gender gaps, with the European Institute of Gender Equality’s Gender Equality Index placing Ireland 6th in the EU in 2025, up from 8th amongst the EU Member States in 2020.

The National Strategy for Women and Girls 2025-2030 includes amongst its seven objectives for reducing inequalities between women and men the “Having a fair Share” objective, aimed at the financial empowerment of women, and the “Being Supported” objective, which focuses on supporting women who are giving and who are receiving care. As part of both these objectives, a major emphasis has been placed on expanding the flexibilities afforded to women, parents and carers in the workforce.

As regards affordable childcare, Shaping the Future: The Early Years Action Plan, Phase 1 report (2025) sets out measures to achieve key Programme for Government commitments on the affordability, quality, and accessibility of early learning and childcare. The Action Plan adopts a phased approach that enables action to be taken in 2026 while allowing adequate time for a broad public consultation and analysis on longer-term actions, which will be set out in a second report to be published by the end of 2026.

Two of the main objectives of Shaping the Future are to reduce parental fees to a maximum of €200 per month over the lifetime of the Government and to increase the supply of places, strengthening supply-side funding to support services’ sustainability and staff wages, while introducing State-led facilities to complement other measures to increase capacity which will support parents to participate in the labour market.

As set out in Phase 1 of Shaping the Future, from September 2026 fee-caps have been lowered further and enhancements to the income-assessed subsidies in the National Childcare Scheme have been introduced. These include increasing the lower income threshold from €26,000 to €34,000 and the upper threshold from €60,000 to €68,000, improving affordability for up to 47,000 children from lower-income families.

Phase 2 actions will be published later this year following analysis of the broad consultation currently being undertaken and will include a roadmap to reduce parental fees to a maximum of €200 per month over the lifetime of the Government.