Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

In the two minutes available to me, I want to welcome all those in the Visitors Gallery who are involved in the child care area. I compliment Deputy Kathleen Funchion on bringing forward this Private Members' motion. She is very well briefed and has a very good understanding of the service. I will be supporting this motion.

I have been involved in this area for the past 15 years as a board member of a community child care centre and I know the service has been historically underfunded and under pressure on a daily, and an hourly, basis.

It is very important to compliment the staff of the child care facilities who work above and beyond the call of duty on a daily basis and who have a huge personal commitment. They provide a professional, quality service. They upskill themselves at their own expense. They are involved very flexibly in the running of centres, coming in early, going home late and so on. Without the commitment of the staff in the centres, there is no doubt many services would be closed by now. Many staff have suffered pay cuts or a cut in their hours in recent years and some people have lost their jobs. As was mentioned earlier, many will sign on for social welfare in the summer months and some will not even qualify for payments.

I welcome the involvement of IMPACT and SIPTU trade unions in this area because proper pay and conditions of employment is a must for staff and for the provision of a quality child care service. To do that, there must be proper State funding of the service to OECD levels.

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