Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I thank the Minister for his reply. I am not sure whether he appreciates that there are two different scenarios for employees. Those who work for large companies or in the public sector often have quite attractive arrangements available to them on foot of employer-supplied child care provision. While not all employees may want workplace crèches or crèches associated with the workplace, nonetheless companies are making significant assistance available to employees, either in workplace crèches or those near the workplace, through the use of firms that supply child care services.

The difficulty regarding small and medium firms in which there may not be a significant number of female employees or women with children is that they often do little to contribute in terms of making child care accessible or available. Earlier, we discussed the difficulties parents experience in respect of child care. Let us consider the position of lone parents on the west side of Dublin who wish to return to work, in particular, or education. The issue of child care is critical to these individuals. Although they live in the Dublin area, unless they have transport — lone parents might well not have access to transport — these people are obliged to make long commutes by public transport. If they do not have access to affordable child care, it makes their participation in the workforce difficult. While some women want to spent time caring for their children, particularly if they have two or more, equally, quite a number of mothers would like the opportunity to avail of part-time work if appropriate child care facilities were available. At present, the situation in that regard is mixed. While, in theory, there are many extra child care places available, in practice, these places are often extremely expensive. Large companies and public sector organisations are in a position to organise child care facilities but, by and large, SMEs cannot do so.

I accept what the Minister said about companies providing child care on a group basis. I am interested in discovering whether he can provide a large number of examples in that regard because I cannot think of a great many. There may be a great deal of community provision of child care in his constituency. However, in constituencies such as that which I represent, namely, Dublin West, where there is a huge range of employers, community child care provision is heavily oversubscribed and places are often allocated on the basis of people being referred by other community services as appropriate prospective clients.

I am speaking about a real gap for women who are probably on the minimum wage, about which the Minister spoke proudly. Unfortunately, for many on low wages the minimum wage has become the maximum wage. If one is on the minimum wage on a full-time or part-time basis, child care is expensive. If one works for a large employer, whether a company or the public service, the employer, if so minded, may make provision for child care. Thankfully, some employers are so minded. As part of the social partnership process trade unions have been to the fore in encouraging employers to provide extra child care facilities. However, there is a group of people who are on the minimum wage at the lower end of the labour market and working part time, for whom affordable child care within a realistic geographic area is difficult to access. Proposals such as this would assist them. Unfortunately, child care provision is very much a patchwork quilt. There will never be one child care arrangement that will suit everybody, nor should there be because families have diverse needs, demands and lifestyles and varying numbers of children. What applies to parents with just one baby is not suitable for those with two or more children.

Despite what the Minister stated about the Finance Bill, a great leap forward must be made on child care. My party has brought forward comprehensive costed proposals, for instance, for a pre-school year, which would certainly massively ease the burden on parents, particularly mothers who may want to do some work. The Minister could be much more inventive in making child care accessible for parents who want to work on a full-time or, more usually, part-time basis. Certainly, the supply of child care facilities is limited in my constituency.

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