Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil welcomes the introduction of the Childcare Support Bill, for which we and the parents of the State have been waiting since the single affordable child care scheme was first announced in budget 2017. As a mother of three, my youngest being 12, I was always dependent on family support for child care. Even tonight as I stand here, I am depending on my mother at home to look after my youngest. We are all very aware of how important child care is.

This Bill enables the operation of the single affordable child care scheme, which consolidates existing child care subsidy schemes into a single streamlined scheme with targeted subsidies for lower-income families and a universal subsidy for middle-income and other families. This will provide much needed support for parents for whom children's costs have become similar to a second mortgage. There is many a day on which people come into my office under severe pressure because of costs. If one has two or three children under six or seven years, child care represents a very significant cost. It can cost as much as a mortgage. Child care is all about choices. The choice some families have to make is between having both parents work outside the home to try to meet the costs and having one parent stay at home when the children are very young. It is all about choices. These choices are very difficult to make.

I am familiar with couples who work shifts in various factories, especially in Waterford. They might work based on three eight hour rotations. There are plenty of families in which both parents work opposite shifts. One might do the early shift, from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m., and the other might work from 2 p.m. until 10 p.m. so one of them will always be at home to mind the child. Obviously, it is very hard on family life because people cannot spend a lot of time with one another. Owing to the prohibitive cost of child care, these are some of the options families have to choose from.

I am disappointed about the overall manner in which these child care measures have been handled. First, the delay in the delivery of the scheme has caused significant uncertainty for parents and providers. It has also prevented as many as 9,000 families from availing of their promised level of subsidy. I do not doubt for a minute the intentions behind the Bill but, unfortunately, the Government promised to deliver these measures by September 2017. Owing to chronic delays with the ICT infrastructure, in addition to delays with the legislation, these measures have yet to be delivered. It is now January 2018 and I sometimes doubt whether the scheme will actually be delivered. I hope it will because the children of the country and their parents are dependent on it.

The current circumstances are causing uncertainty and inconvenience for parents and child care providers alike. It is indicative of a total lack of joined-up thinking and planning. As matters stand, the affordability and sustainability of child care leave much to be desired. We cannot blame the Minister for that. Whereas the OECD average cost of child care represents approximately 12.6% of net family income, the figure in Ireland stands at approximately 27.4%. That is an absolutely huge proportion of any pay packet. When one factors in mortgage payments, car payments and the cost of the basics, some people are really left stranded.

There is a lot of talk about middle Ireland. I regard middle Ireland as involving two parents in a household working hard. They might have two or three children. They might be trying to educate some of them and to have the others minded. By the time every bill is paid at the end of the week, there is very little left. This is why I welcome the introduction of the Bill but I am worried about some of the issues that have already been raised.

I am a bit worried about the tendering process to establish and operate the IT system for the single affordable child care scheme. It has only recently begun in earnest. This is a key piece of the scheme. Without a centralised portal for parents to input their income details and child care arrangements, it will not be possible for the scheme to be administered. I listened to Deputy Donnelly with interest. He said he had considered the scheme, gone online and found it difficult. Why has it taken so long to put the scheme out to tender? The details should have been worked out prior to the announcement of the scheme. Sometimes when we introduce legislation, there are unintended consequences. Maybe this is one of them. The Minister needs to provide a deadline for the awarding of the contract. This is extremely important. Parents need to be sure this will happen.

Another issue raised with me by parents is that they feel the scheme will not allow them much choice and flexibility regarding their child care arrangements. To avail of the subsidy, parents will have to have all their child care provided through centre-based care. Currently, fewer than 20% of children are cared for full-time in crèches. The remainder are cared for by relatives or childminders, or a mix of both, and there is really no provision for these families. As a mother who has depended significantly on family support over the years, I believe this is a matter we can consider in the future. Parents still feel they have not a lot of choice or flexibility and that they cannot opt for a mix of centre-based and informal care, or at-home care, such as a childminder or relative. Fianna Fáil believes we should be examining means to support these families, possibly through the use of a tax credit. I hope the Minister will consider this.

Before I finish, I wish to touch on the impact on vulnerable families. We know there are many vulnerable families. Currently, certain low-income households are eligible for highly subsidised full-time child care places, even when one or both parents are not working. These arrangements recognise that not all families have the same needs and that a person's participation in the labour force is not the only determinant of child care needs.

For lone parents, for example, it may be impossible to seek and begin work if they are not already participating in a highly subsidised child care scheme. Once again, I congratulate the Minister on her work to date in bringing this Bill forward. There are a few issues that arise but I have no doubt they can be dealt with later on.

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