Government committed to reducing childcare fees to 200 euro, says Taoiseach

The Taoiseach has said the Government is still committed to reducing childcare costs to 200 euro a month over its lifetime.

The Fine Gael-Fianna Fail government had pledged to provide “state-led” childcare through building or buying state-owned childcare facilities and developing them in tandem with schools.

The programme for government says the coalition will “progressively reduce the cost of childcare to 200 euro per month per child through the National Childcare Scheme and explore options to cap costs for larger families”.

On Wednesday, Minister for Children Norma Foley said 135 million euro would be made available for state-led childcare services, with buildings acquired this year.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said there were 50,000 children waiting for a childcare place and that the programme for government pledge to reduce childcare fees to 200 euro a month had been “ditched”.

“You’ve made no reference to your promise for 200-euro childcare, you’ve obviously ditched that but you haven’t got the integrity to just state that plainly,” she said during Leaders’ Questions.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said that the reduction of childcare fees to 200 euro was a government-term commitment.

“That will happen, we’re not ditching anything, we’re committed to that and we’re going to do it. But it’s over the lifetime of the government,” he said.

The Fianna Fail leader said that the capital investment announced this week would “significantly increase childcare places over the coming years”.

The Government had sought to limit increases in childcare fees by subsidising childcare providers if they did not raise their fees.

But creches said their costs had risen while Government subsidies had not and that this had put them under pressure.

He said in 2024 there was a five-year high of 357 new services opening and 131 closing; he said the latest data showed 372 providers had opened as of November 2025, with 122 closing, a net increase of 250.

Mr Martin said there had been “substantial” progress on childcare for the last four to five years.

Childcare costs have become a political topic in recent years due to issues with access and high costs, with fees often compared to a second mortgage.

During the general election, Sinn Fein pitched a 10-euro-a-day per child plan, while Labour, the Social Democrats and the Green Party pledged to introduce a public childcare sector, capping costs at various rates.