Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the comments that have been made about the fact that we approach this issue in a recession. That must be borne in mind. Certainly, in preparation for the meeting it was brought home to me by a number of child care providers that they are struggling in the current environment and have lost clients. A number of them are in serious difficulties.

However imperfect, what we are doing is putting in place a two-tier system in relation to child care in Ireland. One tier involves what will, hopefully, be a well-regulated and well-qualified professional cohort of carers for children. I take the Minister's commitments on board on the introduction of legislation for after-school services. I am concerned, however, that a very significant number of parents have children who are being cared for in very informal situations and who are outside the loop completely. We are carrying a legacy from the past and the choices made by previous Governments as to how child care would be approached. If our starting position is that anybody working with children should be suitably qualified, we will have to deal with the informal child care sector. Does the Minister have any proposals as to how that can be achieved? One of my concerns, looking at what is currently happening with ECCE and the funding being provided in the formal sector, is that services are being funded for 38 weeks of the year with low-paid workers having to sign on the dole during the summer months. If we are to establish the kind of professional child care situation Mr. Wolfe and Early Childhood Ireland were referring to, there will be very significant cost implications for the majority of small child care providers.

Everybody providing child care services should have some level of professional qualification, whatever it may be. I would like to see an overall package of measures from the Department to deal with the formal and informal child-care sectors. We are going to have to look again at the concept of tax relief. Has the Department considered how we can expand regulation of child care to cover every sector in which child care is being provided?