Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and the Opposition. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs and have been for some time. I have worked closely with the Minister on the issues relating to this. I want to place on record the fact that I believe the Minister has done extremely well with this and has displayed with a very proactive attitude in trying to address the concerns highlighted by my colleague, which were raised during the election campaign. I am getting a nod from the Opposition that this was raised in the election campaign of 2016. I come from a rural constituency. Child care was one of the main issues raised at doors. Perhaps my age meant that people spoke to me much more about it. It was a huge issue at people's doors at the time because the economy was on the rise, people wanted to get back to work and the affordability of child care was a stumbling block for people to get back to work. They were caught in that trap. As we progress with the economy, we need to tackle that. There are historic issues here since there has been neglect in this area over successive Governments. Child care costs have been excessively high so we are tackling that culture and, for want of a better word, trying to institutionalise this and bring it forward.

This is coupled with other cross-departmental moves to show people that the Government's attitude across those Departments is trying to marry them with this scheme. For example, children under six get free GP care. Some 10,000 children now qualify for a medical card, which has been extended to those in domiciliary care. There are 47,000 extra breakfast club places. Back to school clothing and footwear allowance was increased by 25%. We can see this as a cross-departmental Government policy. That is a reaction to what we heard at people's doors in 2016 and why we are trying to put this into place. An extra €20 million extra for the scheme has been allocated in budget 2018. Capitation rates for providers of the ECCE programme will increase by 7% in September 2018. There will also be increases in funding for Tusla. The two weeks of paid paternity leave for fathers has been introduced for the first time in the history of the State, all part of this overall cross-departmental attitude. That conveys the Government's attitude regarding what we are trying to do here, namely, facilitating people getting back to work and balancing that with rearing families. In other words, ensuring that there is a work-life balance.

I spoke to the Minister about the roll-out of the scheme at a meeting of the joint committee. We are progressing with the IT system to try to reduce cost and the administrative burden in actually applying. Requirement-gathering, putting this system in place and getting it up and running will be key to the scheme's success. We have seen IT systems fail in this House before, well before my time, with personnel, payroll and related systems, PPARS, in the health services back in 2005 or 2006. I believe, since then, that there has been a psychological fear relating to IT systems, that there would be ongoing costs and unforeseen outcomes. We have to be on point in that regard. We should have our own in-house team which is on a par with external consultants but which has ownership and power over these systems. The last thing we want is to have all that power go to an outsourced IT company that can push a button and bring the entire system down if a disagreement occurs or if an unforeseen issue arises.

If we get this right, we can roll out that model to the mental health services, for example, since we have seen in our committee that the IT systems there are insufficient. We are trying to get real-time reporting, particularly financial reporting, that we cannot get as public representatives. We are asked to provide a budget but we are not given real-time financial reporting. If one works in the private sector, is accountable for a budget and asks for real-time financial reporting, one will, particularly in the aftermath of the crash, get it in an instant. We need to start marrying that across here so that we can use those analytics to make informed choices about the business function for us as the business users, not as a financial function. That is a big problem in the mental health services. I know I am digressing but I think we can use this model. I know we will be successful if we use and roll out that particular model, although it will be a different IT system. The way the business system integrates with IT would generate success with that, particularly around administration and for ease of application as well. When the end users come to use this, it should be well-tested and simple. It should not be bureaucratic for the end user. If one looks at any business user, particularly owners of child care, they want to concentrate on the function of what they do. The business side is more difficult for them, so if we can make that administration easier, it would be much more successful on the ground.

As I said at the outset, the overall contribution to this was to show that, cross-departmentally, the Government is focusing and listening. I look forward to working closely with the Minister and the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Farrell, on this issue. We are on a stepping stone. We introduced measures in 2017 and are bringing more forward this year. We hope to roll this out in 2019 or 2020.

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