Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak to the motion and take the opportunity to offer my sympathy to the Minister on her recent sad loss.

Yesterday I received an email about this issue, in which I was informed that Ireland spent only 0.5% of GDP on early childhood education and child care, which is well below the EU average of 0.8% and the 2% of GDP invested by the Nordic countries in this area. I received another email from Private Early Education Providers, PEEP, the national representative body for private child care providers, which stated some of its members would be forced not to offer the new Government designed affordable child care scheme owing to a lack of information on how it would be implemented and insufficient funding for the management and provision of the scheme. According to PEEP, while the scheme is due to be rolled out in September, parents appear to be unaware of it and child care providers have yet to see a copy of the contract they are expected to sign to deliver the programme, which is outrageous. We heard earlier about issues to do with special needs assistants, although the Taoiseach clarified that the matter was discussed by the Cabinet today. It is not good enough that parents and providers are being kept in the dark.

Despite repeated requests to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, vital information on conditions for providers who will deliver the scheme is not forthcoming. This, too, is not good enough. The people concerned are public servants and should be treated as such and given the information they need on the provision of this service. We all support the call for improved working conditions for those who work in this vitally important sector.

As we know, the consequences of under-investment are all too familiar. Pay is low for educators; staff turnover is high and services are struggling to remain open. I was chairperson and a founding member of a Naionra in my village. I also served on its board for a number of years. I understand having to live from day to day and week to week is not good enough as it undermines efforts to ensure the provision of high-quality care for children.

Another aspect of the debate that does not receive enough attention is that the fundamental issue with many of the Government’s child care proposals is that very often they represent an attack on parents who do not want to seek paid work because one or other wants to mind the children at home. Long before we had any of these schemes one parent remained at home to care for a child or children. The view is that parents who wish to mind their children at home are placing them at a developmental disadvantage. Nothing could be further from the truth. We need to challenge much of the so-called evidence that children over the age of one year have better outcomes in day care than they do at home.

I will conclude with the following quote taken from a UNICEF report:

Notwithstanding the evidence, the amount of time spent in centre-based care must be considered. Evidence suggests that prolonged periods in centre based care can have a negative impact on children’s outcomes, particularly for younger children.

Nowhere does the report seem to contemplate just how radical it is to say children are actually better off being cared for by someone other than their own parents. The aim should be to ensure as many children as possible are cared for at home. The report also does not honestly face up to the fact that many of its proposals are a blow to stay-at-home parents. We need stay-at-home parents. We are all about choice and equality. If parents choose to remain at home to care for a child or children, they should be supported in doing so.

I accept that the Minister is fairly new to the portfolio, but I appeal to her to direct her officials to provide the information requested. It is not fair that parents and providers do not have it. As in the case of SNAs and the Taoiseach's statement this morning that we will never again have to wait until July for it to be announced, parents and service providers need the information now. They are doing the State a service. They earn a pittance and need to be supported. Above all else, they need to be given the information requested.

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