Taoiseach Simon Harris wants his party to introduce new facilities for children by 2026 and state property used for asylum-seekers is being looked at as part of plan
Fine Gael is proposing to use state-owned buildings or land unsuitable for international protection centres to roll out new childcare facilities across the country.
The party said 100 state-run childcare facilities would be introduced within two years if it was returned to power.
The pledge will be contained in Fine Gael’s election manifesto, which is still being drafted, and aims to provide additional childcare places for families struggling to find creches.
However, Cllr Hazel Chu, who is a Green Party general election candidate for Dublin Bay South has strongly criticised the proposal.
“Bonkers proposal by [Fine Gael] to locate childcare centres in buildings that were turned down for asylum accommodation,” Ms Chu wrote in a post on X.
“These buildings were rejected as they were too isolated, too derelict or too costly to fix. It looks like a plan cobbled together overnight,” Ms Chu added.
The councillor added that the Green Party “were the first party to take childcare seriously”.
“The Greens were the first party to take childcare seriously and used our time in [government] to halve the cost of childcare.
“We’ll reduce costs further AND roll out guaranteed places for childcare in turn-key locations that suit parents, such as the State’s network of [Education and Training Board] buildings.
“If Fine Gael really wants this to happen, what they should do for the reminder of the government is to support the Ministers for Education and Children to make sure that there’s more state owned properties given over.
“The Greens have been talking to Education and Training boards and other state owned facilities trying to make sure we can do this in the future,” Ms Chu added.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said she was “surprised” to see the proposal and questioned if it was suitable to use buildings deemed unsuitable for international protection accommodation.
“I was rather surprised to see that. I think it speaks to this newfound interest in a publicly funded model of childcare, which Fine Gael are now it seems coming on board with. And so we welcome a move towards a more public system,” Ms Bacik said.
“But that Fine Gael proposal to use land that has been identified through the international protection system, I’m not sure if that’s appropriate,” the Labour leader added.
Childcare is set to be a general election campaign battleground, with the parties fighting to win the votes of young families.
Fine Gael has already promised to introduce capped rates of childcare at €200 per month per child, and Taoiseach Simon Harris said he wanted creches built alongside new schools.
The party will commit to 100 childcare facilities being brought on stream from 2026, which will be state-run.
This will include the building of new facilities as well as the refurbishment of buildings that are already owned by the State or local authorities.
It has now emerged that the party is seeking to take advantage of the work carried out by Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman to compile a list of vacant state-owned buildings as he sought to accommodate record numbers of people seeking asylum in Ireland.
The Green Party leader ordered an audit of all state-owned buildings that could be repurposed to international protection centres.
Fine Gael will propose to use this list, believed to include more than 200 buildings, as a starting point to evaluate whether any could be repurposed for childcare. However, it is not believed that all will be appropriate for that purpose.
The plan would first target areas across the country that are most in need of childcare.
While the party will look to establish state-run childcare, it is understood Fine Gael will commit to a system that will have both private and public-run childcare.
This is where the party believes it will differentiate itself from political rivals who have also committed to a cap on fees.
Sinn Féin, for example, has proposed a childcare model that would cost families €10 per child per day.
While Fine Gael’s cap is a similar amount, it is understood the party will emphasise that the private sector cannot be left to provide enough childcare spaces on its own.
Junior minister Neale Richmond, who will be the party’s childcare spokesperson, said the challenges facing the country in terms of childcare were not just an issue for families, they were affecting the economy.
He insisted the plan contained in the manifesto was “ambitious, but realistic”.
“Childcare is a massive issue for families all around the country,” Mr Richmond said.
“But equally for employers, it’s one of the biggest issues facing the economy as well as our society and we in Fine Gael are going to unveil a really ambitious plan to make sure we bring down the cost of childcare, but also increase the level of availability.”
Last week, Taoiseach Simon Harris told the Indo Daily podcast he wants to see public childcare facilities built alongside schools.
He added that the cap on fees to which Fine Gael would commit would be brought in “quite quickly” if the party is re-elected to government.
