Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I commend Sinn Féin for this motion and, in particular, the contributions of Deputies Kathleen Funchion and Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire. A number of us were at a demonstration six weeks ago outside the gates of this House organised by SIPTU on a significant day - International Children's Day. Obviously, the protest was about child care and the poor pay and conditions that workers face. Not only are poor pay and conditions a problem in child care, but so too is staff retention. As other Deputies have said, it seems incredible that we have 22,000 people looking after our children who are very badly paid. There is something fundamentally wrong with that model.

Ireland has one of the most expensive child care systems in the OECD. It is the most expensive with the least subsidies and a workforce that is badly paid. Obviously, there are parallels between what is going on in child care and the health care system. There is pay apartheid in the health care system.

As a Deputies have said, there is this mystical Nordic child care plan that we all aspire to. The nearest we get to Nordic child care in Ireland is if we go to IKEA and leave our children in the crèche there. The facts speak for themselves. In Ireland, we spend 0.5% of GDP. If one wants a Nordic child care system, one must spend 2% of GDP on child care. It is a lack of investment that has led to this debate on poor pay and conditions for staff.

I think the Minister will admit that there is a genuine crisis in the child care system in this country. When I was investigating this and doing a bit of research, I found there is a bewildering array of child care schemes. I understand the Minister is trying to amalgamate them. There is the community childcare subvention programme, the after-school childcare scheme, the childcare education and training support programme and the early childhood care and education scheme. I welcome the fact the Minister is introducing a new scheme, a single affordable child care scheme with a universal subsidy, to replace the other schemes. I hope I am correct in that.

Currently, we have over 4,000 child care service providers, between community and private for profit. I really welcome that this motion shines a light on those who look after our children. Obviously, they want to be as committed as possible to their work.

We should aspire to the Nordic model. If we do not give subvention to child care, it will have a knock-on effect on the workers and also on the quality of child care. Child care is an invaluable form of looking after our children and society as a whole.

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