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

I acknowledge the dedication and commitment of Deputy Troy for being at the forefront of this very important issue which affects many families. Despite the significant improvements to regulation and funding made during previous administrations, early child care and education here have fallen significantly behind our European competitors. The Minister is aware of the White House report, The Economics of Early Childhood Investments, which stated, "Early childhood, beginning in infancy, is a period of profound advances in reasoning, language acquisition, and problem solving, and importantly, a child’s environment can dramatically influence the degree and pace of these advances." It is a critical period in a child's development, and effective early childhood care and education play a significant role in the outcomes for children in society, particularly for those with barriers to learning, such as intellectual or social barriers.

Approximately 266,000 households in the country have a child under the age of five, which is relatively high compared to our EU partners. The number of children aged under five is set to increase significantly. Child care costs in Ireland are the highest in Europe and many parents, including me, pay more in child care than we do on our mortgages. This leaves families under terrible domestic financial strain. The difficulties in accessing affordable child care is pushing women in particular out of the workforce, and leading many of them to make a stark choice between quitting the workforce and sacrificing their long-term potential or working at a net loss.

The choice for one-parent families is even starker. For these parents, child care costs can have the perverse effect of driving them deep into poverty as they cannot take up employment. Figures produced by the Minister for Social Protection show that 12,000 one-parent families will be €86 worse off per week following the implementation of reforms on the single parent package. These reforms are being driven by the Government. They should have been aimed at encouraging parents into the workforce but they are having the reverse effect. They will leave many parents trapped in low-paid employment or will drive them into poverty through a mixture of poor employment and poor reforms in child care costs. The changes to the eligibility requirement mean that in July supports for more than 30,000 families will be removed, which will create difficulties for them. The Government is using a carrot to reduce the cost, but it is a very difficult stick for families to face in the context of addressing affordable child care.

All of these measures are part of what I regard as an anti-family and anti-woman approach by the Government. It has engaged in a campaign which has had negative consequences for women. All one needs to do is examine the budgets the Government has introduced, which have cut child benefit, reformed maternity leave negatively, cut respite care and reformed one-parent family supports which has also involved cuts. These are having devastating consequences for lone-parent families trying to access the labour market but finding it next to impossible to do so because of the Government's lack of ambition in child care.

This country does not have a national plan for early intervention for children with special needs, particularly those under the age of four. We need to see a special emphasis in policy,or the development of a child care strategy, which provides children with a minor disability with access to child care settings that address their needs. Mainstream early childhood services do not have adequate funding. We need to provide equality of access to ensure children who may have a minor disability have the same chance as able-bodied children to succeed in society. The first step of this success is access to affordable child care. The lack of specific inclusion guidelines for early childhood is a major barrier for achievement in this country. The practice in providing mainstream child care access for children with disabilities is not a priority for the Government.

It is estimated that approximately 6,300 children with disabilities attend early childhood services throughout the country. Parents or service providers are expected to meet the additional costs of employing special needs assistants. This is completely unacceptable and leads to the isolation of the most vulnerable children in society who may have a disability and who want this first step to equality in society. Their families are struggling with these difficulties and this is unacceptable. That these children also face a barrier to accessing the universal free preschool year is evidenced from research. Targeted initiatives would enable children with disabilities or special needs to participate with their peers as equals in society. This is not the situation and it is not a priority for the Government. It is not enough for parents alone to invest in the provision of child care without significant investment by, or a strategic engagement or approach on the part of, those who provide a consistent service to the children, as this would ignore the research and would devalue the contribution and commitment of, and education provided by, service providers in our communities.

The key problem for the child care sector is the poor pay and benefits of the workers. This is despite increased regulation, an increased workload and an increased requirement for training. On average, early educators get paid less than €9.50 per hour. This is despite the fact they must hold significant diplomas and FETAC qualifications. They are not financially rewarded for their endeavours to provide childhood services. The average size of a preschool service in Ireland is five staff members per service provision.

Having regard to ratio in terms of the Government's regulation requirements, small to medium-sized services struggle every day to meet those targets. They face difficulties in terms of labour costs, as have been outlined, and in terms of rates. The Department has failed to demonstrate any meaningful engagement, particularly through the Minister, to provide leadership in terms of a direction to those who are grossly underpaid in the service and to those who provide a service who have invested significantly at great cost to their domestic circumstances. Unless the Government commits directly to intervening in the early childhood years area, we will postpone a significant issue and we will see a time bomb in the context of the education of our children. That is why we ask the Minister to consider positively intervening directly to ensure that the investment that is required for early education is provided in the learner fund.

A universal system of in-service training is required to be established for the provision of qualifications and practices in the professional development of staff within the childhood services. This is a genuine attempt to be progressive, to engage in a dialogue and provide recognition of the qualification of professional workers within the child care sector. It is required of and incumbent on the Minister to engage immediately in a dialogue with the child care services and to ensure that we do not have the fragmented approach that has failed in respect of years upon years of commitment and investment where successive Governments have successfully invested in this area. That will soon be lost to society by the Minister's inaction and the lack of leadership.

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