Ms Audry Deane:

The Better Europe Alliance enjoys a robust, positive productive and ongoing relationship with the EU semester officers, one of whom is in the Gallery. We are involved in continuing dialogue in respect of the 2016 country-specific recommendations. This is about reform. For the past two years, the recommendations have highlighted issues of significant concern to civil society organisations in this country, particularly early years child care and education. I have no wish to be pedantic but this is not just about the labour market and plonking kids in child care settings. Rather, it involves development outcomes for our most important citizens. This country is coming from an extremely low, poor, underfunded and unknowing base. There was a significant step-change in this regard in the budget. The interdepartmental group consulted, listened and delivered on this in the budget. It is incumbent on whoever is in the next Government that they continue to honour the options and commitments made in that report because it will be for the betterment of society and economy.

The lack of policy coherence was a concern around the child care country-specific recommendation. We viewed it more than as a labour market facing mechanism in need of reform but also a measure that can help lone-parent families. It must be remembered that many of the children in these families are living in consistent poverty, namely, material deprivation where they are not in receipt of things that everybody else takes for granted, such as birthday parties, heating, proper nutritious food, ability to go and participate in both school and society. We have flagged the lack of policy coherence to date to parliamentarians and the EU. One cannot have one arm of government saying it needs to get lone parents back into the labour market but then not offer them the supports which would allow them to upskill and be employable to future employers. Our concern is the lack of policy coherence.

It is regrettable the two Deputies who raised primary care are not here to hear our response. This country has an underfunded primary care system. The country-specific recommendation is heavily focused on the financial and structural reforms of the HSE, Health Service Executive, in particular its accounting systems and activity-based funding. We have to ask people to remember those who have the least access to timely interventions of care. It is quite nice to talk about glossy health care centres opening up in the Dublin suburbs and elsewhere but we have got long waiting lists for services which other Europeans take very much for granted. If one does not have access to critical intervention services at the right time, such as speech and language therapy, education and psychological services or community mental health services, one is really racking up problems which will take the lifetimes of future taxpayers to resolve.

We will continue to lobby for increased resources going into primary and continuing community care. It is one matter to have good activity-based funding throughout the acute health system. However, if the primary care system is not there to meet those leaving acute hospitals after successful episodes of care, we are going nowhere. We will continue to flag that issue.