Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak during this very important debate on child care. I thank and commend everyone who works in the child care sector in Irish society. Approximately 4,300 child care centres in this country employ approximately 23,000 staff, who are doing an excellent job. They need to be supported, as do their families, who are under extreme hardship at the moment. We all accept that early childhood care and education is particularly good for the child, but it is also very good for this country and its future. Many members of the child care profession are earning little more than the minimum wage. As a result, we are losing qualified and experienced people who can no longer afford to remain in the profession. Earning a professional wage and supporting a child's development should not be mutually exclusive. It is important to stress that we have to look after those who provide front-line services.

What is the current situation? There is no child care cost support tax relief for working parents. The cost of child care to parents is extremely high. The annual cost of full-time child care for two children is €16,500 per year. That is very costly on working families, mothers and fathers. Support for children with disabilities and special educational needs is very limited and inconsistent across the country. Subsidised child care places are not equally accessible in all areas of the country. The capitation rates for delivering the early childhood care and education scheme are insufficient for the majority of child care providers. The early childhood workforce cannot access the learner fund for higher level qualification. We also see that early childhood professionals are undervalued and under-resourced and have high employment insecurity. The current child care funding policy is absent of any supports for working families that do not avail of the community child care subvention. That is the situation for many families on the ground.

I would like to acknowledge and focus on children with special educational needs. They face too many challenges as they try to avail of preschool education that is tailored to suit their individual needs. Mainstream early childhood services do not have the appropriate funding or supports to provide equality of opportunity for children with special needs. There is a lack of a nationally agreed pay scale. As I have said, low levels of wages are a problem. Paid professional development opportunities are absent. The members of the early childhood workforce, many of whom go above and beyond the call of duty, are generally not paid for all the work they undertake.

What should the Government and all the political parties in the Dáil do? They should consider the idea of introducing a child care tax break for working families.

We should provide a second full free preschool year for all children, particularly those with disabilities. As an interim measure, we should reinstate the 2011 capitation grant levels under the early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme with immediate effect. We should increase investment from the current 0.4% to 0.7% on an incremental basis within the lifetime of the next programme for Government. We should consider extending the community child care subvention, CCS, programme so as to enable children to access private child care places and publishing and resourcing the early years strategy so there might be a blueprint for investment and policy development. We should introduce a national payscale for child care workers. I also support the extension of the ECCE capitation grant to cover statutory holiday pay and continuous professional development.

When discussing child care, we should be broader in focus than the issues I have outlined. Child care is an important strategy for tackling child poverty. In recent days, we have learned of how the poverty rate has increased from 7.7% in 2012 to 8.2%. This is a national scandal. Some 1.4 million people, representing 31% of the population, cannot afford basic items. Some 135,000 children are in poverty. We should work on providing preschool education and child care and then tackle economic, social and educational disadvantage. I urge everyone to support the motion at 9 o'clock tomorrow and the protest outside the Dáil next Tuesday.

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