Childcare to be a faultline between outgoing coalition parties

Taoiseach likely to dissolve the Dáil on Thursday

Green Party leader and Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman has previously said that he wants to establish a public model for childcare.

The issue of childcare looks set to be a faultline between outgoing coalition parties, with the Green Party accusing its partners of "back of a cigarette packet" policies and of "stealing Green clothes".

Taoiseach Simon Harris is likely to dissolve the Dáil on Thursday, setting the stage for a three-week campaign in which the outgoing coalition will be forced to argue its differences while defending its collective record, with approaches to housing, childcare and tax set to become points of contention.

Green Party leader and Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman has previously said that he wants to establish a public model for childcare and that while this is being established fees would be abolished with two years of free early childhood care and education placements guaranteed by the State. 

This would mean that if places were unavailable, the State would have to step in and purchase or rent buildings in areas of need. The party also proposes an increase in tax credits for stay-at-home parents raising it to €4,000 while also extending it to co-habiting couples.

However, senior party sources said that a Fine Gael proposal to convert vacant State-owned buildings into childcare facilities, were "drawn up on the back of a cigarette packet" and "a joke".

"If they weren't fit for emergency accommodation, it's not likely anyone would send their kids," a senior Green Party source said.

Fianna Fáil's manifesto is set to join both Fine Gael and Sinn Féin in pledging to cap childcare costs at €200 per month, with sources from those parties arguing that this would be a better use of resources and would benefit parents more immediately.

Years to implement

"The Greens' plan would take years to implement and people need help now," a Fine Gael source said.

Fianna Fáil's manifesto is set to pledge to reduce by 1.5% the rate of employers’ PRSI on minimum wage workers in a bid to offset the cost of auto-enrolment pensions, with the party also set to commit to implementing measures to reduce energy prices in the medium and long-terms and introduce a successor to the ICOB/Power Up grants to help hospitality and retail businesses with high energy costs. Fine Gael sources said that it was likely its party, too, would move on PRSI.

Within Fine Gael, there is optimism about last weekend's poll, which showed the party with a six point lead over Fianna Fáil. The party will pitch to middle-income earners, sources have said, saying that the cost of living is "coming up everywhere".

Mr Harris is likely to seek the dissolution of the Dáil on Thursday, though government sources said that an EU meeting in Hungary on Friday morning could see him make the announcement of a November 29 poll on Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Green Party will be proposing the establishment of a Minister for Loneliness, similar to a post which exists in the UK. The initiative in the UK was brought forth by Labour MP Jo Cox before she was murdered in 2016.

Ireland has one of the highest rates of loneliness in Europe and a dedicated minister would be in place to extend support and services to people of all ages and who are living in both rural and urban areas.