Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Troy on placing this important motion before the House. The motion is important for a number of reasons. It is solutions-based. It highlights areas which must be addressed in the years ahead and it comes up with imaginative ideas to do this. All these things are resource dependent, but we must prioritise our children.

We cannot look at child care in isolation. We must look at the societal impact it has and the reasons families are on a consistent treadmill of paying bills and meeting mortgage repayments. Two people in the family are being forced to work. In all of this, we need to talk about choice. Families should be able to make choices which are in its best interests as a family. If a parent wishes to stay at home, society should be structured in a way that will allow this to happen. Many people wish to give as much time as they can in the home.

Inflationary policies on housing which have been pursued for many years and which are being continued must be addressed. This is the kernel of all the problems. People are slaves to bricks and mortar. They are committed to a mortgage for 25 years. A huge portion of their income is going towards putting a roof over their heads. To fund the mortgage, two people must work. They then find themselves in a child care trap. They have to afford both child care and a mortgage. As a society, we need to have an open debate and examine how we address the issue of people being akin to slaves to a system which does not benefit parents, children or broader society or us collectively as a nation. We must address this key area.

Professor Honohan of the Central Bank came forward with proposals with regard to putting the brakes on the inflationary pressures in the housing market. Anything which brings this about is welcome. However, there are also downsides to what was proposed, for instance, for first-time buyers trying to get on the property ladder. However, the broader issue is that everyone pursues inflationary policies of expensive houses. We have to look at this issue. We are a population of 4.3 million. We are not a densely populated country. There is lots of space available. We must try to adjust our housing policy to ensure that people have more of their disposable income to invest in their children, education and time with each other. As time goes on, this will benefit society. The idea that children have to be dragged out of bed at 6 o'clock in the morning and herded into the back of a car to be dropped off at child care in darkness with rain hopping off their heads, not to be seen by their parents again until 6 o'clock or 7 o'clock in the evening, cannot be good for parents, children or society.

Deputy Troy has come up with various proposals, relating for example to a second free preschool year, tax credits and supports for the community child care subvention schemes, to try to address this issue. All of this results from another obvious problem. The key problem that is forcing parents into the perpetual treadmill-racing they have to do is that it costs too much to buy a house in this country. They have to pay a mortgage on their house and another mortgage to put their children into child care. This must be addressed so that parents can choose between continuing to develop themselves in the professional environment of the workplace and staying at home. That needs to be an affordable option as well. I honestly believe what we are doing to the children of this country at present will almost be a scar on our society in the years ahead. It is simply wrong in many ways. We need to rebalance and refocus in this regard.

As there are 23,000 people working in child care, which is the subject of this motion, it can be said to be an industry in itself. Much of it is regulated. Obviously, child care is provided to a large proportion of children in the unregulated sector. I refer, for example, to children who are dropped down to a neighbour in return for a bit of cash at the end of the week. We all know that these things happen in society because people have to make the choices that are in their own best interests. I think the introduction of a second free preschool year would be a major step towards alleviating the financial and other pressures that are faced by families. As Deputy Michael McGrath said, the provision of a child care place is a direct support for the child and a step towards the formal education process. There should be a more seamless transition from preschool to the formal educational setting of school itself. While this obviously depends on resources, it should be a priority. We cannot put this issue on the long finger or kick the can down the road in this regard. Today's children are the young adults of tomorrow. That is the continuum through life. The impact of early childhood supports is clear for everybody to see in the statistics and empirical evidence from surveys and studies of human behaviour. I have already referred to two cohorts of people. Many people are funding huge mortgages because they had no choice. They were coming of an age when they had to buy a house and that was basically it. It was not as if they wanted a swanky verandah and a jacuzzi. They just needed a house, but it was a very expensive house. They had no choice.

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