Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

We are entering a debate and approaching a referendum. It would seem that the same people who are very exercised in that debate do not have the same interest in child care after children are actually born, which is noteworthy.

The cost of child care for a single child can be 40% of a lone parent's income. In the context of increasing rents and mortgages, this cost can be a second mortgage for families. It is a major issue for young people and families. Why is it that the OECD average child care cost is 12.5% of net family income when the average in Ireland is more than double that at 27.5%?

As I said, if one is bringing up a child on one's own which, unfortunately, a lot of people in the country are, most of whom are women, it involves 41% of one's income because there is obviously only one income. Why does child care in Germany cost 9.7% and cost a similar amount in France? In Sweden the figure is 4.4%.

I did some research in the Blanchardstown-Dublin West area, which is a typical Dublin suburb with a lot of young families. The average crèche cost is €898. In France it is €200. In other countries it is a lot less. The reason is very simple. In this country, there is a reliance on private companies to provide child care for the majority of people in society and the State has failed over decades to intervene to ensure that is not the case. Unfortunately, in the scheme the Minister introduced, which was obviously a flagship scheme in the last budget from the Government, the subsidy to private crèches continued unabated. Private providers continue to benefit.

As a result, we have seen abuse of the scheme. We have all been inundated with anecdotes and examples of complaints. In Fingal, the area I represent, costs have risen by, on average, 7.7% according to a report on the affordability of child care in Ireland by Ciarán Nugent in December 2017. That information is very up to date. It is happening everywhere, not just in urban areas. The Minister has been inundated with complaints, according to articles I have read. What is she going to do about it?

Crèches are profiteering because they know parents are getting a subsidy. Therefore, they have decided to increase the cost. Parents will pay the same or even more, as many currently are. Alternatively, they are deciding not to join the scheme because they think it is too onerous, some fear the Government will control their businesses and others do not want to deal with the paperwork and administration involved. They may be small operations and it is not always the case that profiteering is taking place.

The Minister replied to the complaints and said she was monitoring the situation last summer. One parent from the Swords area, near my neighbourhood, said, "It was inevitable this was going to happen. We are disgusted. We struggle each month to pay these enormous child care costs and just can't believe the first bit of help has been taken from us." That feeling is widespread. People were looking for some relief and it has been snatched back because they are stuck with private child care providers who are not answerable to the State in any way. The person who contacted me said, "With respect, the time for monitoring has passed. The time for action is now."

Nothing has been built into the scheme. It has been amusing to read letters from Ministers about individuals who have contacted their offices, and the paper trail which tends to exist in some parties, rather than the core issues being addressed. This is happening all over Ireland, not just in Blanchardstown or Fingal. All Ministers have written to the Minister about the issue. What will be done about it?

The other issue with relying on the private sector to provide child care for parents, children and workers is that it is much more likely that people working in the sector are in precarious employment. Some 50% of child care workers work part time compared with an average of 40% of workers in general. I would estimate that about 99.99% of those working in child care are women, many of whom might be unemployed during the summer months because the scheme does not run during that time. The average hourly rate for workers in the sector is just over €10 an hour. They are low-paid women, have precarious employment and can be let go at any time. The recession hit many female workers, in particular child care workers, because many people could not afford to keep working due to the cost of child care.

The area I represent has a significant migrant population. Many nurses from India live there. They came to Ireland to work in the health service, and some of their partners have given up their jobs because they simply cannot afford to pay for child care. This is something which is prevalent throughout the area.

A significant majority of parents have been left out of the scheme, an issue which was raised at the time it was announced. According to the Growing Up in Ireland survey, 27% of parents use crèches, 42% use family or relatives and 31% use non-relative childminders for child care. The scheme is particularly unjust for shift workers, that is, those who have to work at night and cannot put their children into crèches which only operate during certain hours. They are being doubly hit because they cannot avail of any subsidy whatsoever. That is particularly unfair and nothing seems to have been considered which would take account of that fact.

I will start answering the question I posed at the start of my contribution. The reason we have such exorbitant child care costs is because parents are prey to the private sector and successive Governments, not just this one, have not been willing to invest any money in preschools or child care. UNICEF has set as a benchmark that 1% of GDP should be spent on child care and early education. OECD countries spend, on average, 0.7% of GDP, but Ireland spends 0.2%, as cited by the Nevin Economic Research Institute, NERI. We are far below the recommended level. A number of countries exceed or reach the 1% expenditure rate, namely, France, New Zealand and the Nordic countries, those which provide affordable child care and invest a significant amount of money in it.

This is a significant issue for a large segment of our population who have children. In particular, it is a women's rights issue because child care invariably falls on the shoulders of women. Responsibility for organising and overseeing it falls, in general, on women and they have to weigh up whether they can afford to continue to work. Points have already been made about participation.

We need to stop the outsourcing of child care to the private sector. We need to provide public State child care for all parents, first of all to ensure that workers are decently paid. I would hate to think that my child is being minded by a disgruntled, unsatisfied worker who was under huge stress. We have all seen cases of this being exposed. It is simply unfair to expect somebody to provide child-centred child care when he or she is being grossly underpaid and is under stress. What would this cost?

To bring us to a level of being able to provide State child care which would employ 50,000 child care workers and invest €1 billion in capacity and the capital provision would total €2.5 billion. That might seem like a massive amount of money, but in the context of the wealth which exists in the country it is not. Ireland ranks about 15th in the OECD in terms of wealth. We all know the significant undertaxing of big business and multinationals. The figures are quite revealing.

The Scandinavian child care provision is something to which everybody aspires. Those countries have double the corporation tax rate that we have in this country. There is a direct link. If we refuse to tax wealth and massive corporations, we will not be able to provide State services. It is simply not tenable. If there is a low tax on wealth, the State cannot provide these services. The same neoliberal philosophy which runs through the child care sector is running through housing right now.

It means that child care costs are very high while rents are extremely high and house prices are rising. It is no wonder that many young people, graduate teachers etc. are choosing to emigrate because they simply do not see a future in this country. We need massive investment and to tax wealth to provide child care.

Why is preschool education considered to be any different to primary, second or third level education? Why should people have to pay a large part of their income for preschool education, which all studies show has massive benefits for children and society? It benefits literacy for children who avail of it when they come to primary school. I saw that as a teacher. If we value the importance of preschool and early education for children's development and development of the person, it should not be any different. In years to come that is how it will be viewed. We need to end this neoliberal outsourcing of essential needs to the private sector.

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