Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am in Leinster House. My apologies - I am jumping in and out of two committees at the same time. It seems that in the parts I have jumped in for many of my questions have come up and have been answered.

I will hone in a little on what is coming up for me in some conversations. I relied on childminders especially when I was earning little and when I wanted to go to college. I reckon there is a need for professionalisation in terms of the safety of children. However, there is a fear of over-professionalisation and a judgment of what childcare should look like. It comes up for me as an issue in communities where there might be limited literacy or early school leaving. There are all sorts of fears around Tusla and institutions. We have all these things acting in the background but they are no less capable or less able to be childminders for neighbours or friends or the daughters of friends. That is how I availed of childcare. Many of the childminders I used would shy away from being part of any regulated system or from registering with Tusla. How can the action plan operate in a way that we can recognise the professionalism of the work without over-professionalising it to the point where women and mothers, especially those who are least well off and in low paid jobs, are not completely excluded from extra financial supports? Is the balance failing in the action plan? How is this panning out? How can we ensure that women and one-parent families can be supported? How can we ensure that we do not impose some sort of ideal or fairy-tale idea of what some person's house is supposed to look like when a childminder is minding a neighbour's child? I am concerned that my scenario is being replicated throughout our communities. I am mindful of the difference that having access to childcare supports would have made to my life. I definitely would have been caught out and would have been unable to access centralised childcare or pay for private childcare. There are many people in limbo in that sense. Does the proposed action plan adequately address the barriers faced by childminders? Some of them may register but some might have fears of registering. How do we alleviate those fears? People are afraid they will be means tested or that there will be on-the-spot checks on their home. Not every community would be into that. Sometimes that fear is not grounded in the childminding ability but simply in the lives and the environment in which people grow up and live. It is not so much a question but more of a concern that has come up. Perhaps Ms Heeney or Ms Byrne could reply to that point.