Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's answer is "Yes" to buying carbon credits. I also asked the Minister how much he proposed to spend. He might respond to that.

The report also says that according to the OECD, childcare costs in Ireland relative to wages in 2015 were the highest for lone parents in the EU and the second highest in the Union for couples. It also states that the high cost of childcare can act as a barrier to accessing paid employment, particularly in low-income households, including single parents. That is a far cry from the promise made by a Minister who served in a Government in which the Minister served that there would be Scandinavian-style childcare for Irish parents at this stage. A recent ESRI report found that lone parents are being forced to take up work as a result of changes to the one-parent family payment and have suffered a fall in income. It pinpoints the lack of affordable childcare as one of the two key reasons for this. Is the Minister prepared to be honest with the House and state that Fine Gael clearly does not believe in publicly run, affordable childcare, which would benefit the people who need it?

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