Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I get that there is a need for a structure and regulation. However, the worry I have is that women in villages who have minded children all their lives very adeptly, and with love and care, may look at this and decide that it is time for them to leave the stage. That is a major concern for me.

To move things on a small bit, the discussion we are having here aligns to the home help sector. I ask the members to allow me to elaborate. There is a shortage of childminders and home helpers. I am not being sexist when I say it, but it is a fact that the vast majority of individuals providing childcare and home help services are female. I know many of who have gone into the home help profession in County Clare. Many of them, particularly in the home help sector, find the taxation regime prohibitive. The same could be the case in the childcare sector if childminders are required to be registered. It has often suited people to take on childminding work at a certain time of day to enable them to be free in the afternoon when their own children may be coming home from school or secondary school. The taxation regime, however, means that they go unregulated. They will continue to fall outside the net because the taxation regime simply offers no incentive for them to go on the books.

The other point I wish to make concerns the early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme. The ECCE scheme is a major function in child education and for many families it is almost a kind of childminding. Currently, to qualify for the scheme, the child must be aged two years and eight months in the September of the qualifying year. That is prohibitive. I am helping a family at the moment with their case. The child is two weeks outside of that threshold. It stymies all of their plans to get that child into early childhood education and on to school.

Finally, there should be some discussion relating to morning clubs and after-school childcare. I was a primary school teacher until I was elected to the Dáil. The provision of such childcare happens in many schools on anad hocbasis. Some have hugely embraced it and others have not. It is a major type of childcare in most villages and towns. Parents know that their children will be with their buddies before and after school, the environment is safe and controlled, homework will be done and the children will probably get a snack. The provision of these clubs is very ad hocand hit and miss. Some parents are taking their children out of one school and moving them to another because that facility is there. I want to pick the witnesses' brains. Has there been any high-level discussion on the provision of such facilities becoming more uniform across the country?