Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address this motion on the important subject of child care. I am pleased to confirm that Sinn Féin will support the motion tabled by Deputy Robert Troy.

Child care is a right and policy must be geared to the needs of children and families, rather than solely to the needs of the labour market. The State still has one of the lowest rates of child care provision in the European Union. Many families on lower incomes either cannot get child care or must pay a disproportionate amount of their income on weekly child care bills. The lack of quality, affordable child care prevents many women who wish to do so from working outside the home. There is an absolute and urgent need to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy for child care provision.

While some progress has been made since Sinn Féin first raised this demand in 2004, this Government, as with its predecessor, has been far too slow to act. Sinn Féin, in our policy document, Education and Childcare – Reaching our Full Potential, proposed State-led provision of regulated comprehensive child care to be made available to all, equally and as of right and funded by general, direct and progressive taxation. This would include universal early childhood education and care, universal preschool for children aged from three to five years and an after-school child care system.

In addition, greater recognition is needed of the economic and social value of parents providing full-time care directly. All parents who wish to spend the first year caring for their child full-time should have an entitlement to do so. Employers should provide more flexibility for working parents to provide child care directly, when necessary and without penalty. We also propose that full-time family caring should be recognised by the pension system through gender neutral carers' credits.

We have called for a phased introduction of universal child care as a right, including immediately providing for a universal preschool session of 3.5 hours per day, five days a week for all children aged between three and five years; expanding child care investment to increase capital, staffing and operational funding; establishing a single accrediting body to inspect, evaluate and register all early childhood care and education providers; establishing a national pay scale for early childhood care and education workers; introducing universal training and accreditation for child care workers; and expanding supports for parents providing full-time care, including through the introduction of one year at 100% of pay and two weeks' paid paternity leave entitlements as an interim step towards four weeks' leave to harmonise these rights on an all-Ireland basis.

These recommendations were made at the height of the so-called boom years when the country was in a much stronger financial position. It is obvious that if they had been accepted and implemented at that time, we would not be in the current position, families would not have to contend with all they have to contend with and there would not be the same need for this motion. As far back as October 2000 - 14 years ago - during a Dáil debate on the national development plan, I called for the entire amount of revenue due from the banks in unpaid DIRT tax to be earmarked for the provision of accessible and affordable child care services. This would have ensured that children were properly cared for in the context of a growing economy where increasing numbers of people were experiencing great difficulty meeting the demands of family and work. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The experience of working families and stay-at-home mothers who wish to return to the labour market has changed little in the intervening years.

The recent Indecon report commissioned by the Donegal County Childcare Committee offered further significant insight into the economic and social impact of policy decisions in this sector. The report, which is entitled Supporting Working Families: Releasing a Brake on Economic Growth, confirmed what many of us recognise to be the reality, namely, that high child care costs are putting one quarter of parents off returning to the workplace or seeking opportunities to commence employment, with most low income families finding the cost impossible to meet. The report indicates that a two child family faces an annual bill of €16,500 for full-time child care, with the average full-time cost over a ten month period estimated at €9,150 for one child and €16,470 for two children. This places Ireland at the second highest point in the scale in terms of costs across all OECD member countries.

The report recommends that targeted child care initiatives should focus on lower income families, with members who are either in employment or unemployed but anxious to secure employment. This should be done among several other initiatives. We are losing the services of one quarter of potential workers because of the prohibitive cost of child care.

Indecon found that a child care amendment to the current family income supplement would be a good policy initiative to encourage unemployed parents back into employment and assist lower income parents to remain in employment. It makes the case that any labour market policy initiatives should consider the current employment status of the targeted groups. The report also points out that employment focused child care policy initiatives should be aimed at either encouraging parents to enter the labour market or increasing their working status from part-time to full-time. These are specific areas of recommendation and the report is most helpful in that regard.

Indecon also strongly recommends that beneficiaries of the incentive be restricted to tax compliant and HSE registered child care providers. It also makes the point, on which I would strongly reflect, that whatever steps are taken in this extremely important area, their impact must be monitored, evaluated and assessed.

After three years, a detailed report should be prepared in order to give the full facts as to the success or otherwise of the initiatives involved. Consideration of the recommendations is critical. This is a major issue. We must establish what steps are now being proposed by the Minister.

I raised these matters with the Minister in our most recent exchange at Question Time at which time I welcomed, as I have done on many occasions, her commitment to examine not only the report’s recommendations, but the child education and training support and community child care subvention schemes to see if there is a better way of organising the services to facilitate parents who want to get back to work. This will require the engagement of other Departments, most notably the Department of Social Protection. I urge that the greater economic and social benefit of such positive moves be recognised when considering the merits of such changes.

I would further encourage the Minister to reference the experience in the North of Ireland, where the Executive recently published its strategy for affordable and integrated child care entitled, Bright Start. As is so often the case, and this is especially true in relation to the subject of child care, one does not have to reinvent the wheel. We should seek to work towards best practice. I am aware that exploratory trips have been taken to Scandinavia to learn from their vast experience. Others have travelled this road before and can show the way. It is a matter of recognising the importance of the issues at hand and having the political will to see improvements implemented and realised. I commend such engagement and consideration to the Minister.

I again welcome this motion and the opportunity to address this most important issue.

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