Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Troy for having the commitment to bring forward this Private Members' motion. Early child care, in cost and quality, is one of the key concerns for both working families and for families who rely on welfare. The provision of child care is interdependent with employment and the improvements of financial supports that are available from the welfare system. I argue that it is critically important that we consider the incentive for working families to remain at work or to return to work from unemployment.

Studies have shown that investment in child care results in the reduction of poverty and increases the educational opportunities for children as they progress through their lives. Given that child care is still the predominant role played by women in Irish society, I also argue that the current system is an inhibitor to women fully participating in the workforce. Arguably, it is causing significant inequality in our society and certainly in our economy in terms of the outcomes and effects of not having a policy that is geared towards families in this respect.

Government action is needed to address the cost of child care for working families, including those seeking employment. That means we need an intelligent distribution of supports to help us tackle the significant cases of various welfare traps that currently exist. I argue that alongside the need to reduce the cost of child care, there is a need to improve the regulation of early child care provision, as set out by previous speakers, and that those working in the sector would have an opportunity, through such regulation, to integrate with the core values informing comprehensive policies in this area. I hope the Minister will accept that targeted supports through tax breaks or adjustments in the family income supplement or direct payments to families who are on the border of family income supplement could deliver more cost effective child care for those on the margins, as has been said by previous speakers. If this were done correctly, we would also encourage the providers of the service who currently are unregulated into a regulated, tax compliant sector. These measures would place a cost on the public purse at the outset but over the course of time revenue would be generated for the Exchequer from tax compliance, increased employment and increased participation in the labour force.

As we develop a fully integrated system of early childhood education and care, I argue strongly that the inclusion of children with special educational needs within that system is critically important. Our party supports a policy of inclusion in that every child with a disability or special educational need is enabled to access early childhood education provision and is integrated into an inclusive system rather than the notion that a child would be put into a specialised setting unless the child has needs that would require such a setting. The benefits of such integration and inclusion are manifold. For the child with a disability or special educational need, he or she grows up and is included in the same social life as his or her peers and is not "hidden away" as used to be practice in the past. These children, and the adults they will later become, are entitled to play a full and wholesome part in society. Under this motion we should consider how we can best assist to provide for children with disabilities in the future. For other children, the benefits are to socialise and to start life seeing those with a disability or a special education need in mainstream life as a full member of society. I have seen this in my own children, where their friends in school include children with Down's syndrome and without any reflection, question or analysis, they regard their colleagues as full and wholesome members of society.

This is far healthier and is a great attitude. The notion we would exclude children with disabilities is one from the old school. Much progress has been made in the area but much remains to be done.

As with our schools, so with our early childhood settings. We cannot allow only a small number of child care providers to share a burden that essentially requires them to be the service providers in this area. Whether it is on the grounds of income, ethnicity, membership of the Traveller community, disability or special educational needs, our early childhood service providers must work towards a total inclusion strategy. I would argue that, unfortunately, the current community child care subvention scheme reinforces the segregation of children from low income families in child care settings. This only serves to undermine the principle of social inclusion and, ultimately, social cohesion.

With regard to the inclusion of children with special needs, we should consider integrating current supports from the HSE at a discretionary level, given they are available at varying levels across the country. The pattern of regional variety in service provision to families with children with special needs was only too evident last week when we saw the outcome of the investment in early intervention teams for children with disabilities. We cannot, as a society, tolerate that families in this situation face a lottery with respect to the availability of supports. The rights of a child in Cork, Galway or Dublin are no less than that of a child in any other area in that they have a right to be fully included in regard to access to public services.

Any proposals and recommendations developed should help to enable the full implementation of the EPSEN Act 2004 and the development of an inclusion policy for the early childhood sector. Responsibility for the provision of special needs assistants to mainstream pre-school services must rest with the HSE through its disability support services. The expansion of a flexible model of early childhood provision is recommended, and we would strongly support any initiative from the Minister in this area. This would enable a system of dual placement with regard to specialist and mainstream provision and would see the enhancement of an integrated model of professional supports and services for the individual learning and support needs of the child.

In line with reducing the challenges faced by children, I would argue that the extension of the free pre-school year, which was addressed by previous speakers, has been of enormous benefit to families in society. I believe we should accelerate the roll-out of a second pre-school year for children. It is important that the extension of this second pre-school year be done on the basis of need first, and then be expanded on a resource basis to allow families and children to fully participate. In the development of childhood services, early expenditure pays dividends for the future and prevents the greater cost to the Exchequer of not investing in the educational outcomes of the child at the primary stage.

With regard to the care of children, it is essential that we move towards a system of shared parental leave equal to the European norm. Ireland is one of the few countries that does not provide fathers with some form of leave outside of emergency or force majeure leave, and we propose they would have leave, outside of a collective bargaining arrangement, on the birth or adoption of a child. We need to bring forward legislation, such as the Parental Leave Bill 2013, which has passed Second Stage in the Seanad. This Bill provides that a pregnant employee and the father of that pregnant employee's child shall not be permitted to take maternity or paternity leave at the same time but that they shall be permitted to share between them a minimum period of the maternity leave. I call on the Government to facilitate the passage of this legislation. It is a worthy measure and I believe it would help tackle the latent sexism that exists in the economy and within some companies. It would provide greater flexibility for families in making childhood arrangements.

To conclude, the motion relates to an issue of concern to families and would bring multiple economic and educational benefits. It is an entirely positive motion, lacking in any political attack. I concur with its motives and, in that light, I would encourage the Government Deputies to consider supporting it.

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