Childcare Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-10-01
============================================================

Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

The Deputies have spoken about having proper childcare facilities on campus. Ideally, that is the way to go. The announcement of a number of crèches and of childcare funding earlier this week shows the correct process to do that. However, that is little comfort for the Deputies' constituents in the challenges they will face in a couple of months' time. I reiterate that it is for the providers to go back. The Department and I will ensure the concerns the Deputies have raised are taken up and that everybody, including the county childcare committee and the inspectorate, are working together to find a solution. It is very difficult. The point regarding how short the notice given to families has been is not lost on me. It is hugely challenging and difficult. From dealing with families across my own area, I know what it is like and I know what the challenges are. Right now, we have to try to find a solution for the immediate future. In the long term, it is the right thing to do to ensure there are proper facilities on campus but, right now, we have to deal with these issues. I will give an undertaking to ensure the Department engages on whether an alternative can be found, which I know it is willing to do. We will work with the Department to try to find a solution and make sure any engagement towards finding that solution is meaningful.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-10-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:01:00+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-10-01