{"id":14836,"date":"2025-12-17T12:31:51","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T12:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=14836"},"modified":"2025-12-17T12:31:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T12:31:51","slug":"public-childcare-ignored-once-again-in-overdue-action-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/public-childcare-ignored-once-again-in-overdue-action-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Public childcare ignored once again in overdue action plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The government\u2019s decision to renege on promises to roll out a public model of childcare is shortsighted and lacking in ambition, according to Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Farrelly said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m deeply disappointed that there\u2019s been no mention of the provision of public childcare in the Minister for Children\u2019s action plan for the sector.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are no details of State-led childcare services in the Minister\u2019s announcement, which is in stark contrast with the commitments and promises from Government representatives during the 2024 General Election campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI welcome the progressive points of the government\u2019s new early learning and childcare proposals, but it remains essential that public consultation informs the framework for the future of this essential public service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe increase in the threshold for financial supports from Autumn 2026 is a vital and welcome announcement from the Minister, but we must be more ambitious when it comes to childcare.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe department&#8217;s commitment to engaging in a public consultation in 2026 for phase 2 of this plan will be a critical exercise in bringing the medium and long-term aspects of this plan to fruition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Minister has left a bag of coal under the tree for parents, workers and providers this Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>December 17th, 2025<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government\u2019s decision to renege on promises to roll out a public model of childcare is shortsighted and lacking in ambition, according to Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly. Deputy Farrelly said: \u201cI\u2019m deeply disappointed that there\u2019s been no mention of the provision of public childcare in the Minister for Children\u2019s action plan for the sector. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,296,540,7,660],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aidan-farrelly","category-childcare","category-children","category-press-release","category-public-services"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Public childcare ignored once again in overdue action plan - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/public-childcare-ignored-once-again-in-overdue-action-plan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Public childcare ignored once again in overdue action plan - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The government\u2019s decision to renege on promises to roll out a public model of childcare is shortsighted and lacking in ambition, according to Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly. 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