Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann,

calls on the Government to radically modify the new proposed child care subvention scheme that the Government intends to become fully operational from 1 July 2008, as this scheme:

will impose intolerable financial pressures on many parents by increasing the expense of child care;

will force some parents to leave employment and become dependent on social welfare payments;

threatens to cause the closure of many not-for-profit crèches throughout the country;

presently renders it impossible for such crèches to recruit new staff on a permanent basis; and

undermines the prospects of returning to the workforce or the obtaining of essential training and education by parents presently working in the home who wish to resume employment;

and further calls on the Government to extend application of the existing subvention scheme up to 31 December 2008 to end the current uncertainty.

I wish to share time with Deputies Carey, Feighan, D'Arcy, Clune, O'Mahony, McHugh and McCormack. Perhaps the Acting Chairman will indicate when I approach 14 minutes in my contribution.

The Government has displayed stunning incompetence in announcing the new community child care subvention scheme that is to become fully operational on 1 July 2008. I acknowledge the new scheme will benefit a small percentage of community child care services, particularly in some disadvantaged areas of Dublin where a substantial portion of parents are recipients of social welfare or family income supplement. However, it will also have a profoundly detrimental impact on parents, children and the vast majority of community child care services established on a not-for-profit basis throughout the country. For children, many parents and community child care providers, implementation of the new scheme is potentially catastrophic in that it will make it financially unviable for parents to continue to use crèche facilities, and it will force some to make a choice between continuing at work or having children.

The question must be asked if the Government is attempting to implement a surreptitious "one child per family" policy such as currently exists in China. The new child care subvention scheme could be described as State-imposed family planning by stealth. Clearly, its impact is anti-family, anti-child and anti-parent.

As an instrument of economic policy it is entirely misconceived. The continued economic success of this country and our capacity for continuing growth remains partially dependent on the net immigration of workers into this country. As we have a growing elderly and greying population, and as the imbalance widens between those in employment and those retired, it is also dependent on our birth rate naturally growing. It should be an essential social and economic objective in this State, as in other member states of the European Union, that parents be encouraged to have children rather than discouraged, and that the economic impact of rearing a young family be mitigated or relieved, not made unnecessarily burdensome.

The impact of the Minister's proposals were very starkly portrayed in a letter written to The Irish Times by Oonagh Montague. I wish to quote some extracts from that letter. She states:

Today the Government made the decision for me that I shall only have one child. Up until now I had been trying to hold my ground against the grinding increases in all of life's necessities. Finally, my husband and I must admit defeat. The Government has introduced the Community Child Care Subvention Scheme. This will affect the crèche our daughter attends.

She goes on:

Whatever remains after child care is needed to pay bills. We do not go on sun holidays. Our car was born in 1995. We do not go out to dinner and the cinema is a rare treat. Like many of my friends, we live a rather frugal life.

She continues:

Up to now I thought I could muddle along. Now things have changed. This morning it seems the Government has won. This is one final increase we cannot overcome. So I can only have one child. I thought this was a decision I would make for myself. I will not attempt to express how this makes me feel. Sometimes there are not words to convey how hopeless this country's voters feel.

That letter very eloquently and starkly portrays the concerns of many parents.

The current scheme originally operated under the Equal Opportunities Child Care Programme 2000-06 and was co-funded by the European Union Social Fund. Through it, targeted support was provided through the staffing support grant scheme whereby community-based not-for-profit child-care providers were awarded grant aid towards staffing costs to allow them to charge parents limited fees for child care. This scheme, which originally was to end in 2006, was continued by the Government to the end of 2007, no doubt because 2007 was an election year. No detailed description of the newly-announced scheme was contained in any of the election manifestos of the Government parties. It was simply cynically announced a short few weeks after the formation of the present Government.

Funding under the present scheme provides universal supports for all parents who avail of not-for-profit child care services but the new scheme applies to a limited category of parents. In practice, only parents in receipt of social welfare payments or participating in community employment will benefit from an €80 weekly subvention in respect of full day care provision, and parents in receipt of family income supplement will benefit from a €30 weekly subvention in respect of such day care.

Many parents currently in employment and in receipt of modest earnings will be required to pay substantially higher weekly child care costs than those now incurred. This is because implementation of the new scheme will render it impossible for current services to continue without increasing charges to parents who do not benefit from subventions.

The announced new scheme has caused genuine alarm and stress to parents and has resulted in many genuine concerns being voiced by those involved in the provision of community child care services. These include Planet — The Partnerships Network, which is the representative voice of the 38 area-based partnerships, which work to promote social inclusion through the development of disadvantaged areas and communities. Such concerns have also been expressed by the Southside Childcare Action Network, Bawnogue Women's Development Group, St. Ronan's playgroup in Clondalkin, Catkin's nursery in Longford and others.

It is clear the scheme, if unchanged, will have the following detrimental impacts. It will impose intolerable financial pressure on many parents by dramatically increasing the expense of child care and it will force some parents to leave employment and become dependent on social welfare payments. It will undermine the prospects of returning to the workforce or the obtaining of essential training and education by parents currently working in the home who wish to resume employment. It places at risk the financial viability of many not-for-profit crèches throughout the country should it result in a reduction in the number of children availing of their services due to parents' inability to pay increased costs.

It will act as a direct disincentive to parents currently dependent on welfare obtaining further education and training so as to rejoin the workforce, knowing that if they do so, any financial benefit gained through employment will be entirely or largely offset by increased child care crèche costs. In some areas it will place at risk the social mix of children using specific crèches and will result in the overwhelming majority of children in such crèches deriving from parents dependent on social welfare and effectively segregate these children from others whose parents are in employment and who cease availing of crèche facilities, making arrangements for their children to be looked after by family members or friends.

The announced new scheme has already had a detrimental impact in so far as it has rendered it impossible for crèches to recruit new staff on a permanent basis in circumstances in which their future funding and capacity to pay wages of any staff recruited is entirely uncertain.

The new scheme as announced in theory becomes operative on 1 January 2008 but it will not apply to community child care facilities already funded under the current scheme until 1 July 2008. Over 800 services throughout the country are currently in receipt of staffing grant support under the current scheme and transitional arrangements have been put in place to maintain the current scheme for all existing grant recipients until 1 July next.

From statements made by both the Minister for Health and Children and the Minister of State with responsibility for children, it seems the reason for this transitional period is that the Minister for Health and Children announced the new scheme without having available to her essential information as to how it would work in practice, and without her Department first undertaking the necessary research to make appropriate judgments.

No clear data was obtained or maintained as to what was the actual level of disadvantage in respect of parents and children benefiting from the current scheme, which has been in place for four years. No research was undertaken to ascertain the profile of disadvantaged parents using the service or to determine the numbers removed from social welfare dependency to employment.

Although it was a condition of funding under the original scheme that a tiered fee structure apply to enable a broad range of parents and their children benefit based on their ability to pay and to ensure a good social mix, no adequate structures were put in place to ensure implementation of such a tiered system. Neither was any advance research undertaken to determine the impact of any proposed changes to the existing scheme.

Prior to announcing the new scheme, information should have been obtained from the service providers by the Minister to establish a profile of each service currently available in terms of the type of services provided, the profile of the parents using the service for their children, the operational costs and any other relevant data indicating a special need that requires a particular approach. Instead of first obtaining the information and then announcing a new scheme, the Government announced the scheme and is now seeking the information. Not only is this an extraordinarily incompetent way in which to administer public funds, because it confirms there was no proper monitoring of expenditure on the current scheme, it is also a scandalously inept approach to the formulation of crucial social policy affecting the rights and day to day lives of parents and children.

The reality is that in today's world for most parents to keep their heads financially above water, it is essential that both mothers and fathers are in employment. The truth is that we need more, not less affordable quality child care services; we must reduce the costs for all parents who need to avail of crèche and other child care facilities; we must apply the child-centred approach promised in the Government's National Development Plan 2007-2013; and we must implement policies which strongly support parents into and in employment. We should encourage a work ethic and not force parents to become welfare dependent.

The new scheme announced by the Government fails to reflect any of these principles. We have been told in this House that when the Government completes the research that is now under way, it will consider what amendments, if any, it can make to the newly announced child care subvention scheme.

The Minister has indicated that by February or March next, he hopes to be in a position to bring proposals to Government. We do not know if he will have funding for the new proposals, the content of the proposals, how they will affect parents and children or the capacity of the current crèche providers to maintain their services. The Minister at this stage does not know what he will propose as the Department must now consider and analyse detailed information received from over 800 service providers about tens of thousands of parents.

It is not good enough that the current uncertainty should continue. The new and amended scheme the Minister is considering announcing should be first published in draft form with a report detailing the information obtained from the research undertaken and the conclusions derived from it. There should be total transparency and, following publication, there should be a three month consultation period, following which the scheme the Minister proposes to adopt should be brought before this House for debate and, if need be, amendment. In the interim, the Minister should end the current uncertainty and announce that the current scheme, which is to continue on a transitional basis until 1 July next, will be extended until 31 December 2008.

I call on all parties in this House to support the Fine Gael motion and demand that the Minister address the current uncertainty and real concerns of parents and service providers who have contributed outstanding service to local communities in establishing not-for-profit facilities for children and who wish to ensure secure employment for their staff until at least the end of 2008 and to know where they stand. It is intolerable that the present situation should continue.

See this speech in context