Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the opportunity to make a brief contribution on this most important motion tabled by Deputy Troy. Child care is extremely important for our children's livelihood. The current situation is forcing some people to consider leaving the workforce to look after their children and ease their financial burden. All citizens of this State should be able to work and provide for their family.

There are approximately 4,300 child care centres in Ireland and the number of staff employed in the child care sector is approximately 23,000, which is a substantial figure. There are 405,000 households in Ireland with children under ten years of age, of which 266,000 households have children under five years of age. The birth rate in Ireland is the highest in the EU and the projections suggest growth in the number of children under five years of age in the period to 2016. The number of children of less than five years of age will increase between 2011 and 2016 by approximately 4%.

The cost of child care in Ireland is a significant burden on families. As Deputy Kitt mentioned, an Indecon survey carried out for Donegal County Childcare Committee in November 2013 estimated the annual cost of full-time child care for two children at €16,500 per year. The cost of child care in this country is the second most costly in the OECD in net terms as a percentage of wages and for lone parents the average cost of child care is estimated to be approximately 45% of average wages.

This must be looked at again. Parents need more support from the Government. As at census 2011, there were 25,426 households with children in Louth. Child care is one of the most expensive costs of living. People are suffering and they need help immediately. A National Consumer Agency child care price survey in 2011 found that the average cost of full-time care for a toddler was €181 per week, ranging from €145 to €220 per week across services nationally. This represents an average of over €9,000 per year. How families who are paying all of these bills expect to live, when child care costs are crippling people's budgets, is beyond me. Child care costs can exceed mortgage repayments as the largest monthly bill for families with young children. This increased strain means thousands of working parents, particularly mothers, face the stark choice of quitting work because of the high cost of child care or continuing their careers while losing money.

Incremental upward investment in early childhood care and education is essential if there is to be any real change in the quality of early childhood education within Ireland's early childhood services. Real change is needed immediately. The Government must be proactive, not just reactive. While the free preschool year was a positive step forward, quality across early childhood services remains variable. Measures to improve quality have been largely focused on the free preschool year and on increasing regulation, with almost no support for the development of quality services for children under three years of age.

We therefore believe that an increased investment from the current 0.4% of GDP to 0.7%, on an incremental basis within the lifetime of the next programme for Government, will be required to make progress and increase quality standards in early childhood care and education. Parents need to earn up to €30,000 a year just to fund the cost of child care for two children. A survey by the Irish Independent shows that it costs up to €1,150 per month for a crèche place for a baby. For a baby and a toddler, the cost can rise to as high as more than €2,000 per month. Early childhood is the most important time for public investment in human capital. Children's early years should be protected from the austerity cuts. Public support for child care services should be linked to work-life balance policies and the timing of parental leave to ensure a continuation of support without gaps. The quality of child care is critical to the promotion of child development.

I am pleased to have had the opportunity to make a brief contribution in support of this motion on something which is vitally important for the country, both now and in the future.

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