Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister to the House and I am delighted to have an opportunity to contribute to this debate. As a number of speakers have said, there is a considerable amount of concern among parents and community groups. Much of it is based on misinformation. Something can be done about this, and I know the Minister of State has been endeavouring to communicate as best he can, although it may not be possible with some elements of the media. However, I have no doubt that this debate will add to the information available.

As Deputy Conlon pointed out, it is important to recognise the tremendous amount of work that has been done. When I was first elected to the Seanad five years ago child care was a big issue, mainly because there was such a limited amount of space for children. Locations were not available and the facilities were not in place. Thankfully, we have started to address this and have gone a long way towards providing places in both the private and the public and community sector. The facilities are of a very high quality and are managed well. I have met with a number of providers in my county over the past five years and they have done a great job in bringing together communities and putting in place the services that are required. The work they have done is a credit to them and their communities. However, there is some concern, which is based on misinformation, and we need to address this.

Whenever an effort is made to change a system, an element of fear is engendered, which is all the greater when it relates to one's financial position. That is where most of the concerns are coming from. The biggest concern is that of low-income families. I was heartened to read the Minister of State's statement to the Seanad in which he sought to address the concerns of people who are on low incomes but, because they are not receiving family income supplement or other welfare payments, will be hit for every charge. Because of their financial circumstances there is a real concern that an increase in charges will make it impossible for them to remain in the workplace. It would be helpful if the Minister of State could review the scheme taking this into account. I note that in the Minister of State's original statement in which he announced the proposed changes, he stated he would analyse the information remitted to his Department from the various schemes around that country and make further changes based on this. That would be very welcome.

My final point concerns the VAT regime associated with private child care facilities, although this is probably an issue for the Department of Finance. It would help to reduce the cost to parents if we moved from a VAT-exempt to a zero-VAT system. If the VAT status was changed in this way the capital expenditure and input could be reclaimed by the promoter of the scheme, which would reduce costs.

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