Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Brendan Smith, to the House and congratulate my colleague, Deputy Shatter, on tabling this motion. This is a national issue and the Minister of State does not require Opposition Members to inform him of this. The Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party had a robust debate on this issue and the Minister of State is aware that many of his colleagues are against the proposed new intervention and the new subvention scheme. However, the sad reality is that the Minister of State's parliamentary colleagues will back him tomorrow night in voting down the Fine Gael motion, which has been welcomed nationwide.

I attended a meeting in Letterkenny last night at which more than 200 service providers and parents were present. As the Minister has been involved in this game for much longer than me, the last thing he needs is some advice from a novice like me. However, as a rural Deputy or Minister of State, I advise him to take heed of developments. If this proposal is implemented on 1 July, this issue will be brought onto the streets. A campaign is being formed at present and the proposed changes are not going down well. I advise the Minister of State to intervene at this early stage.

The wheel was not broken, in that a bottom-up approach was in place whereby parents got together on a voluntary basis to work with service providers. Incidentally, those service providers worked on a voluntary basis at preschool for years as best they could under difficult circumstances. The advent of this scheme meant they could be rewarded for their work and could receive a wage. The devolved wage system that has been in use for the past six years worked and provided some credibility to the projects. In tandem with increased capital funding, there have been significant improvements in the manner in which young people are treated at a preschool level.

However, the Government proposals will take this away and will pull the carpet from under a working scheme. The scheme allowed children to sit side by side, whose parents were in receipt of family income support or social welfare benefits or whose parents were working at different levels of the income stream. We were getting rid of the stigmatisation of those who felt inadequate. Children were ready to enter primary school, where the sons and daughters of parents who were working would sit side by side with the sons and daughters of those in receipt of family income support and social welfare benefits. The Government's proposals will begin a process of segregation. A beautiful integration project was in place that operated on a bottom-up basis, was community and family-led and used the best possible practice. Young people with proper qualifications and training were involved and this scheme was working. However, the Minister of State is pulling the rug from under it.

Last September, as soon as I raised this issue, the Minister of State appeared on my local radio station one Friday evening to accuse me of being preposterous in my insinuation that the proposed scheme would not work. He came out with some sort of nonsense to the effect that funding would be increased by 16%. If this issue is considered at an economic level, there will be an increase in certain areas. However, how will such an increase take effect if, as my colleague, Deputy Sheahan, has noted, there will be white elephants dotted across the country? Such white elephants will lack both service providers and young people. This matter should be taken seriously and the Minister of State should heed the contributions to the debate from this side of the House.

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