Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Deputy Funchion, for putting forward this timely motion. We all agree that childcare is the keystone that holds together the building blocks of our economy and society. Unfortunately, it took the dual crisis of outrageous insurance premiums, which almost shut the industry down permanently, combined with a global pandemic for some in this House to understand how important the sector is for workers and families.

This wilful ignorance has for too long created a system that is creaking at the seams. Many parents rely on grandparents. Many people I know in the area where I live are the childminders while the daughter or son go out to work. We should not be over-reliant on them. We saw the challenge many of those grandparents faced during the Covid pandemic when many had to cocoon, creating a crisis for many families. We are still in the middle of the pandemic and there is much talk of a second wave. What will those families do? Everyone wants to go back to work but the parents are faced with this difficult choice.

Hardly a parent in the State would disagree that, without some childcare provision, they would not be able to rejoin the workforce after starting or growing a family. That is the reality. No responsible parent will disagree that the cost of childcare is overwhelming and downright scary at times. It is nearly a cliché that too many families pay the equivalent of another mortgage, that their children can be taken care of while they go out to work. Fees are too high while the wages of many of the workers are described by my union, SIPTU, as poverty wages. At the same time, many childcare facilities cannot afford the costs of doing business. That is the conundrum. Why is that? On the one hand, people are not being paid enough - SIPTU's survey has shown that many childcare workers are on tiny wages - and they are expected to upskill. We went from little or no regulation to a system where multiple agencies demand endless reports, and from affordable insurance to unaffordable demands.

It is simply not credible to me and to many others out there to expect young people to achieve the high qualifications necessary to mind children, for them then to be unable to live on the wages that many in the sector provide. That is the big challenge we have to face and what we are trying to address here. This has to be about affordability and about parents, particularly women, being able to participate in the labour market. This reduces inequality and benefits society and the economy as a whole. It also helps them to return to education. Again, I know from the experience in my own constituency and from many of the courses that are being run, that without that childcare element people would not be able to continue with their education.

What do we need to do? We need to transform the childcare sector if we are to have any hope of getting parents back to work and jumpstart our stalled economy. We need to be looking for a 21st century childcare service which should be about child minding, child learning and a child’s development but not endless form-filling and living in fear of the next bill in the post. When one talks to anyone who has run a crèche, the big complaint is that multiple agencies are looking for repetitive reports and with the time spent on that, there is less time available to look after the children. Some of the signage seems to be a duplication of many of the things that are needed. If we want to see quality outcomes we need to bring about positive change. The big headline issue that we are facing at the moment is that fees are set to rise. This is the challenge for the Minister. We need to sort out one way or another that the people who are doing the job are paid a fair wage, that those working in the sector are looked after, and that it is safe. It must also be the case that parents who are bringing their children to these childcare facilities are not being charged another small fortune to try and get their child into that system.

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