Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On child care, there is nothing in the budget announcement today for hard-pressed working families with young children under three years of age. They get six months of maternity leave. After that, from the age of six months to two and a half years, the parents are back at work and paying for child care. It is costing up to €400 per week for two children, which is an annual cost of €16,500. The annual cost of child care in this country is 35% of income compared to 12% across the EU. The Government is doing nothing for those children in their most formative years.

Parents need support to ensure they have proper child care. Many families with young children are finding the cost of child care to be as much as a second mortgage and in some cases it is more than the house mortgage. Despite the welcome funding in respect of children over three years of age, I am utterly disappointed that there is nothing in this budget for families with younger children. Of course, why would there be? The Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection and this Government have already made known their views on families with young children. The decision by the Government in July to remove the one-parent family payment from parents whose children were over seven years of age was not just wrong, but a callous act, and shows this Government's real attitude to families with young children. However, there was no mention of it in the budget.

I also wish to talk briefly about Irish Water. People are bamboozled about this matter. It is worth taking a step back to see what is the current position. When the costs of the installation of water meters, billing and the water conservation grant are added up, the Government will make a miserly €10 million on water charges this year. That is €10 million for the hardship and scandal. When the costs relating to establishing Irish Water are taken into account, the Irish taxpayer is worse off to the tune of €785 million. All reasonable people accept that we need a national water directorate to co-ordinate the service that is still being operated by local authorities, as agents for Irish Water. However, the Irish Water model chosen by the Government is not the answer. The accountancy trick to get it off the balance sheet spectacularly backfired when EUROSTAT rightly failed it in the test. It was a con job, EUROSTAT saw it and told the Government as much. In fact, we know from the Sunday newspapers that most of the officials in the Department of Finance knew it was a con job and an attempt to buy time by the Government.

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