Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I am delighted the Minister of State, Deputy Brendan Smith, is present as I have written to him on the matter previously, as, I am sure, have many other Deputies. The Minister of State must address the changes he is making to the circumstances of low income parents who are dependent on community child care facilities to facilitate their access to work. It is these parents who have raised their concerns with me and told me how they have benefited enormously for the last six or seven years from the availability of valuable community child care centres. The centres are community-based, accessible and low cost and they facilitate those who otherwise would be unable to enter employment. These parents will be squeezed out by the changes the Minister of State proposes to implement from next January. They will be unable to avail of prohibitively expensive private child care and their only option, as some have suggested to me, will be to become welfare dependent once more. Many of them do very valuable work in the community.

Child care facilities were intended originally to allow people to return to education and work and the proposed changes represent a backward step. The Minister of State mentioned in his letter family income support, but such support cannot meet the cost of child care. I ask the Minister of State to address the circumstances of parents on low incomes who will be severely affected by the proposed changes.

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