Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I compliment Deputies Kathleen Function and Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire on bringing forward this motion. Any Deputy who attended the meetings held around the country will be aware that three issues emerged, namely, investment, wages and consultation. The first message we got was that the workers felt they were not being listened to and that they were not at the table able to talk to the people who mattered. That was a major concern. The second issue was of investment. Considerable investment went into the building of community crèches throughout the country down through the years, but they need investment year in, year out to replace items and to carry out necessary work, but that has not happened. The third issue was wages. It was pointed out that a person in this sector, having gone to college to get a degree, would be paid more per hour working in a local shop.

Those of us who are parents of young children drop our children off at a private or a public crèche in the morning and we trust the person running that crèche. That person could be a mother who got her own children out that morning, went to the crèche to mind other people's children and then goes to college at night to further her education. That must be respected. If we do not respect these people, we will lose them.

The paperwork involved in running crèches needs to be cut down. I attended one of those meetings one night and there were almost 10 yd of paperwork on the different things one must do to ensure one qualifies for the different grants. People do not have time for that, and that needs to be sorted.

Many people running private crèches during the bad times paid the mortgage but they had no wages for themselves. No one will claim we can solve this matter overnight, but I ask the Minister to give the people in this sector a roadmap for the next two, three or four years to let them know where they are going and, above all, to believe in where they are going.

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