Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I accept that and have just said that. The second one made a big difference when times were extremely difficult. The new bringing together of schemes is important, but it needs to be funded and that is the other point I want to make.

In some ways, we have one part of the issue which there has been funding for, which is around the affordability issue for parents, but that obviously has to be stepped up and gradually built on over the years and that is why we developed a five-year funding programme relating to the early years sector. The other side of it is the ability to pay the kind of wages that people in the sector are absolutely entitled to and need. That brings me to the other opportune point, which is that the living wage has been assessed today as being €11.70 per hour. We know that the vast majority of child care workers do not earn anything near that. We did a costing in our alternative budget last year which suggested that we needed to put in €62.6 million just to bring up the wages to the living wage at that time, which is less than the living wage that has been announced today. We need the injection of funding in order to make it more affordable for parents. We also need an injection of funding, and we need to cost it, to ensure that providers can actually afford to pay the wages, whether they are community providers or private providers.

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The parents cannot afford to pay any more and the money has to come from somewhere. I believe it has to come through a Government injection of funds carefully organised and planned through the recognised sector.

I also very much welcome the fact that both SIPTU and IMPACT are involved in campaigning on this because it is important the trade unions get behind the workers in this sector. They have succeeded in other sectors in bringing wages up because of campaigning and involvement. We all have met them and we all have listened to the cases they have made. We definitely need to work altogether on this.

I refer to the issue of how people are paid. For example, I was at a meeting in Deputy Brendan Ryan's constituency recently where a woman working in the sector said she would have been paid better in the local supermarket but yet she had a full child care qualification. She had done years in college and yet her wages were less than what she would have got if she worked in the local supermarket. There is something very wrong with that. With hugely committed workers, we cannot just keep saying that. We have to pay them appropriately for the work they do.

I believe we need the costing. I note that is in the proposal. I also am aware that Early Childhood Ireland, whose representatives are in the Gallery, did a significant piece of work on how the Minister needs to inject funds. We have much of the information already. We need to start in this year's budget. By all means, then let us have a plan for the future - I note the strategy is coming down the line - but it needs to start with significant funding in the upcoming budget.

I do not have much time left and I want to specifically raise some of the issues around the forthcoming more affordable child care scheme. This is an interim measure because the system is not ready for what was originally intended. There is a serious concern among providers that they have not seen a sample contract. The parents themselves are not quite sure how they can apply for the scheme and there is real concern that some providers will say they cannot implement it because they are not ready for it. They do not have the time to implement it. They already have a lot of paperwork to do. I note the Minister stated there is extra funding for contact time, etc., but there is a real burden. There is uncertainty about whether providers can implement the new system that is due to come on stream in September. It would be a shame for parents, but also for the providers and for the children, if we cannot implement this system. The funding, which was provided in the budget, has to be used. The providers have looked for a sample contract, I think, by the end of this week. It is imperative that those who are there to provide the scheme can make it work. I hope the Minister will listen to their concerns also.

We need a quality, affordable system. That is very much in the interests of children. All the research and all the experience of those of us who know children, have children or whatever, is that it makes an enormous difference to a child's life if he or she gets a good early start. While we fund the early years of primary school well, this early years sector has been totally neglected over many years. A start has been made. We all need to acknowledge the small amount that has been done but there is a great deal more to do. The only way we will do it is if we cost it and have a multiannual plan of investment in that sector. It will pay back significantly in terms of the development of individual children, in particular those children who do not have the advantages at home which other children have, but also in terms of society in educational opportunity.

Those who work in that sector are really important and deserve to be paid properly. My party will be fully supporting the motion.

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