Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

When he looked for them, after being confronted by enthusiastic coverage of the issue by RTE, they had all gone to ground.

He was right to point out that if people are willing to stick their necks out and make proposals in this area, they should stick with those proposals. My party recently held a policy conference on this issue and there is a real possibility of polarising parents, particularly mothers, into two categories — those who are in the home and those who are not — who will feel they are being set against each other over a limited pot of resources. Whatever is done, fairness must be shown to those who take their parenting obligations to the point of exiting the labour market or not going into the labour market to deliver to their children. What is written in the Constitution about women not being forced to work outside the home to the neglect of what was somewhat archly referred to as "their duties within the home" should be given some tangible social and economic reality rather than simply remaining a piece of rhetoric. I am aware that a number of Senators are members of the All-Party Committee on the Constitution. I often think that while the language of the Constitution in this regard may not be exactly right, the underlying message about the importance of parenting was progressive for its time. It was intended to oblige the emerging Irish State to recognise the importance of parenting and to protect the most vulnerable economic class from being deprived by economic necessity of the opportunity to provide parenting. However critical — it is fashionable to be critical of some of the language in the Constitution — one may be, its underlying message was positive, progressive and supportive of the parenting role. Even if it was gender-unfashionable and even if some of the language is a little hard to swallow these days, the underlying message remains that society must value parenting in the home.

A reference was made here as well to the time-starved parents of today. It is certainly true that long commuting, long hours of work, traffic jams, etc., make it difficult for many families to cope and survive in modern circumstances and that this is an added pressure on parenting and raising a family. The Government, in the terms of the amendment proposed by Senator Cox, will address over the next weeks and months all of the ideas which are now bubbling forth in a ferment of political innovation on child care, but none of the proposals I have seen can provide a single solution to the problem. There must be a multiplicity of approaches to get the best possible outcome.

When I travel from time to time to London there is a point somewhere over the British midlands where one feels that the aeroplane is beginning to descend. Likewise, in the life of a Parliament there is a point at which we are on a descent path to our next encounter with the electorate.