Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Robert Troy for putting forward this motion, which is positive and focused on solutions. Given that children are undoubtedly our most precious asset, debating their welfare, protection and development should be a priority in this House. I therefore very much welcome this debate.

As other speakers have stated, the reality for many families is that both parents must go out to work and the cost of child care is therefore unavoidable. The child care sector is not homogenous. People use a variety of informal arrangements. These include arrangements with grandparents, friends and childminders. There is also the regulated sector. People are using a combination of these options.

The area requires urgent attention. The introduction of the free preschool year in 2010 has been transformative. It means that the resources are guaranteed to be going to the child. This is a much better way of spending the annual net benefit of approximately €2,500 per annum rather than, for example, by increasing child benefit by that amount. It ensures that before going to school, every child undergoes a standardised curriculum for one year. This is one of the key benefits. For that year, every child is treated equally. We must listen to the sector on the issues surrounding the free preschool year and the capitation rate as we seek to move towards expanding the year to, it is hoped, a second full year. Expanding this hugely successful scheme into a second full year must be our objective.

The right place to start is with children who have special needs. Currently these children are often denied the opportunity of availing of the free preschool year. The reality faced by their parents is that many children with special needs are not able to attend a mainstream preschool class. Alternatives are available, such as a home tuition grant. There may also be a place available in a dedicated preschool for children with special needs. However, when people avail of home tuition, the home tutor may accompany the child with special needs to a mainstream preschool place but the parents must pay for the place. The parents will only get the support once from the State in the form of home tuition. This is a very real issue for parents with children with special needs and it should be attended to urgently.

As highlighted by Deputy Troy, the community child care subvention programme is vitally important. Access to this subvention programme is very uneven and patchy. I have come across cases where mothers, in particular, in low-income households were hoping to go back to work but were unable to do so because of the cost of child care and the lack of a place in a preschool where a subvention was available. This issue must be addressed. A person's address should not determine whether he or she has access to a subsidised child care place. It should be determined by a person's income and his or her ability to pay. This is where we need to move to in that regard.

Staff working in the sector do an extremely difficult job. I am sure they work harder than any Deputy in this House. They are doing important work for all of us as parents. When one considers the role they play in protecting and minding our children, their pay is paltry. The responsibility they face day to day is immense and they should be awarded appropriately. This issue needs to be addressed.

Deputy Maloney touched on the possible unfairness of going down the road of a tax credit. There must be a multi-pronged approach to the issue of child care costs. We must help people on low incomes who are seeking to get back into the workforce by providing subsidised child care. We must also consider the person, the mother in particular, who has a good job and an income of €40,000 or €50,000 but who faces child care costs of €1,000 per month. This is €12,000 per year. If on the higher rate of tax, she will have to earn double this amount. She will need to earn €24,000 per year to pay for child care. The supports we introduce and the way we reform the system cannot exclude this large swathe of people in middle-income Ireland. These people invariably have the largest mortgages as well. These people cannot be excluded from the supports being made available. I do not see a better way to support them in terms of the child care costs they face than through the tax system.

See this speech in context