Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank colleagues from all parties and none for contributing to this important debate on an issue facing many families across the country. Thankfully, the majority of Members embraced the motion in the spirit in which it was intended - a non-partisan, Private Members' motion. It was framed in a constructive manner with suggestions I hoped the Government would consider to help struggling families with exorbitant child care costs. Had I been contacted by the Minister, I would have happily amended the motion to ensure unanimous support in the House.

However, she sought the opportunity to portray herself as the most reforming Minister who had to deal with a legacy of total and utter neglect. The truth is that almost a decade ago this sector was in its infancy. Changes in work patterns and people's attitudes resulted in the sector expanding rapidly. As I outlined last night, there was significant investment in physical infrastructure but there were also many positive policy developments such as Síolta, Aistair and the workforce development plan, which the Government continues to implement and to which the Minister alluded in her contribution. Previous Governments used the introduction of free preschool year as a mechanism to introduce minimum qualification standards. Regulation 5 was introduced to ensure that when preschools were inspected, it was not only about physical and environmental issues examined but also the welfare of educational outcomes of the child.

The motion is constructive and in no way antagonistic or condemning of Government policy. For all the Government's talk of prioritising early childhood care and education, this is the first substantive debate on the issue in the House during its tenure. Fianna Fáil had to use its Private Members' time to ensure this happened.

I agree that, despite the advances and improvements made in the previous decade in a rapidly evolving sector, more needs to be done. Nothing stands still; we continually need to make improvements to ensure not only that we have a fully functional early child care sector, but also that we can aspire to have the best because our children who are future entrepreneurs, business people and professionals deserve it. I willingly acknowledge the Government continues to make reforms and changes, which, when implemented, will improve this sector. The Minister did not acknowledge last night, however, that these reforms received the full support of the Opposition. Despite support from the Opposition and a new fully staffed and dedicated Department, these reforms have been immensely slow.

Last year during Question Time, I highlighted to the Minister the need to address quality issues prior to the introduction of a second free preschool year and I said that the success of a free preschool year could not be measured on participation rates alone. It was not until the "Prime Time" exposé, "A Breach of Trust", that the Minister's attention turned towards quality and she then published the eight-point plan. Responsibility for early childhood care and education remains spread across many Departments and agencies and the Minister plans to introduce another agency in form of a national quality service under Pobal. This will lead to further fragmentation, to which Deputy Creed alluded earlier. Existing local and regional structures with a proven track record in delivering national programmes on behalf of the Department are being overlooked. The "Prime Time" exposé last April identified a number of geographical areas in which there was no inspector. Only last night the Minister confirmed that every region still does not have a full-time inspector. Despite unanimous support in the child care sector for new inspectors to hold specific professional early years education qualifications, the Minister continues to hire public health nurses. Almost 50,000 children are looked after by 19,000 paid child minders in the unregulated child care sector. It is regrettable that the Minister did not make amendments to the child care protection legislation in 2012 to address this aspect.

With regard to upskilling and professionalisation, the Minister has reduced capitation grants to service providers and increased the adult to child ratio, which has resulted in making the sector less attractive. I acknowledge that she introduced a training fund last year through which €900,000 was provided in 2013 and €1.5 million is available this year. However, the fund is restrictive and it does not take an holistic approach to the needs of service providers. Does the Minister think this is good value for money when one person working on the free preschool year must hold a FETAC level 6 qualification? There is no qualification requirement for under threes or for any other Government funded programme.

Last night, the Minister said we would witness publication of the first national early years strategy this year. I hope so because this was promised in 2012 and 2013. While I welcome the wide ranging and comprehensive recommendations, it has not gone unnoticed that a number of key areas are missing from the report of the expert advisory group on early years, not least strategic policy on children with special needs and on addressing the cost of child care in Ireland. This cost is the second highest in the OECD at €16,500 for a family with two children. Last night, the Minister referred to the Government maintaining direct payments to families. However, it cut child benefit, a direct payment, in two successive budgets. This payment is key to helping people with child care costs. In the most recent budget, the Government reduced maternity benefit, one week after publishing a report it commissioned, which recommended increasing this benefit from six to 12 months. The Minister said at the time she was in favour of this proposal. Despite the promise made by the Minister for Social Protection in the House in April 2012 not to cut payments to lone parents when their children reached seven years of age until an affordable accessible child care was in place, this has not happened.

I brought forward evidence-based proposals which are the subject of an international Indecon report in the hope that, at a minimum, the Minister would make a commitment to explore in detail how the Government and the Dáil could collectively pursue policies that would positively help families with their child care costs. I did so in a constructive, non-partisan manner and it is regrettable that on an issue that has such priority among the Government parties, the Minister was the only contributor to the debate from that side last night. Normally, during Private Members' business, significant numbers of Government Members offer to speak on important motions

I believe that through its effectiveness in prevention and early intervention, quality early childhood care and education has the potential to transform children's life chances and reduce future social expenditure by the State. Recent revelations about standards in child care lead us to ask not whether we can afford to invest in early childhood care and education, but rather if we can afford not to.

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