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

I thought the whole purpose of having a new Department of Children and Youth Affairs was to co-ordinate all this. The Minister has had four years in office and I remind him of what the Government has done in those four years regarding the cost of child care. It has reduced child benefit, taxed maternity benefit and reduced the capitation rates that are paid to the child care providers. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, promised a Scandinavian model and what we got was 6,000 after-school places. After 18 months of that scheme being in operation, fewer than 100 places have been taken up. In November 2013 the then Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, promised a review of the community child care scheme and the community education and training support scheme. That review has yet to take place. If the Minister wants to talk about the previous Government's record on child care, we created 65,000 places and ensured there was a proper infrastructure in place for the sector. We introduced a fee preschool year. In the last two budgets, my party put forward fully costed proposals on how we could look at dealing with the crippling costs of child care facing so many families.

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