Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I concur with everything Deputy Marc MacSharry said. Coming from east Galway, I can only but echo to the House everything he said. This evening, I wish to discuss the elements of child care provision alluded to in the House yesterday. My party and I welcome what has happened with regard to child care, although some aspects need to be improved. I welcome the fact that child care has been put centre stage. When Sinn Féin Members stood before us today, they pointed in their scrutiny to everything we did wrong in supporting the Government's decisions in the budget yesterday. The only thing they ticked as right was child care. Unfortunately, while some elements are very right, there are some elements that are very wrong. I will give the House one example. A family on a joint income of €28,000 will benefit by €2,800 per annum. A jointly assessed couple on €29,000 will get €900 per annum. While I really welcome the provision, which has rightly looked after the low-income earners, the middle-income earner has been forgotten about. I refer to a couple with a joint income of €29,000. I hope that in the future, perhaps in next year's budget, index linking might be introduced. Perhaps we could see progression, an opportunity for families who want to work and are ambitious. As pay rises, they should not be left behind completely. Now that we have started in this regard, we should continue with this process in regard to child care.

I am very worried about the lack of choice because in the budget yesterday we left aside the child minder. I rang Galway City & County Childcare Committee today to find out how many child minders are registered. I was told 22 are registered. Throughout the whole country, there are only 300 child minders registered. According to the press conference yesterday evening, there will now be a minimum of 25,000 additional children availing of child care services. Where will we put them? How will we facilitate this? I do not know how this will be rolled out on time. From a budgetary perspective, it is very good for the low-income earners but we have to see how it will be rolled out. We need to consider the child minders and provide supports for them. We need to support our city and county child care authorities.

The €14.5 million for seven days of non-contact time to help child care providers to do their paperwork is very welcome. From a social worker perspective, it was great to see the breakfast and lunch allowances being increased so children could have healthy meals. That is very welcome. The additional clothing allowance, worth €500, is very welcome.

We must also consider the tax discrimination element, however. The tax aspect was not properly covered. It was a weak link in what was presented to us yesterday. The heart of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, was the right place. Perhaps there was no need for the two subsidies. Perhaps we should have dealt with this differently. A person on €47,000 is now equal to a person earning €250,000. That is the inequality.

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