Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

Anybody sitting in the Visitors Gallery would not know the question I asked was if the Minister for Social Protection would outline the conditions that would constitute enough child care support and after school care so that one parent payments would be cut at the age of seven in the future. This question has also been asked by groups such as Barnardos. Will the Minister provide evidence of any country which has made the kind of transition in child care services about which we are talking in just 18 months and against the backdrop of cutbacks and the need to generate Exchequer savings?

There was a contradiction in what the Minister said. Even in the limited outline she gave me, it was not clear how she would see this situation changing. She made it clear that no extra funding would be made available for investment in restructuring child care services in the short term or medium term. Does the Minister really believe the radical child care services needed will be in place within 18 months?

The Minister alluded to the Scandinavian model of child care. Does she know Scandinavian child care is a very specific child care provision? Preschool is available to children from aged one to the time they begin primary school. Children in Sweden begin preschool at different ages and attend for different amounts of time per week. They are open all year round and on certain holidays and the daily schedule is based on the needs of parents with children. Is that the type of preschool model the Minister wants to bring in which is affordable to people because preschool is not affordable to people in this country ?

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