Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Cathaoirleach and I am grateful to have the opportunity to speak and support the motion brought forward by Deputy Funchion and Sinn Féin.

I welcome the Minister’s speech on the basis that he has set out some form of a blueprint here to be proceeded with. It is only fair that we give the new Minister an opportunity to set out his stall and follow through on the many promises that are being made within the speech. It is for us then to support that as those initiatives roll out or call the Minister to book if he is not progressing with his own vision.

I do not need to rehearse for the House the issues that are inherent within childcare as we have been talking about them here for years. I do not need to rehash old arguments about the insecurity of employment and the costs of childcare. These are well-rehearsed and well-known to everybody and to all of us as public representatives and Members of this House because we are representing the people who are affected by these issues day in, day out.

The Minister will have regard to SIPTU’s research on the rate of attrition within the sector, of which his own officials will also be aware. The bleeding needs to stop very quickly. The Minister states that he is putting in place some structures to seek to stop the haemorrhage of people moving out of the sector. I welcome the fact that the Minister is meeting with SIPTU next week to address some of the issues that it has been highlighting for quite some time. Let us take that at face value, accept the Minister’s meeting with SIPTU and see what arises from that. I am hopeful that the Minister will be in a position in the short term, after 23 August, to give us some solace on the status of the temporary wage subsidy scheme, TWSS. While the Minister states that he is working with his Government colleagues in respect of the time after 23 August, I ask that the Minister and Government give consideration to the continuation of the TWSS. He is not telling us outright that this is what will happen but I am hopeful that if we are talking about real support for the sector, this is one of the bedrocks by which one can support employment in the sector. If one looks at the rates of attrition, with due respect to the Minister, I would not be trumpeting as a win the fact where he states in his speech that over 85% of all services which are usually open in the summer months have already reopened just three weeks into the reopening period. That signifies that there is a rate of attrition already of those services that would normally open in summer. I know that there is a natural rate of attrition which the Minister’s officials might tell him of and which he will be aware of. What I fear is that, come September, with the uncertainty that exists now around the reopening of schools, where we do not have a clear pathway, this will feed into a further uncertainty for childcare.

For the fourth time in this House I will speak about the regressivity that exists for women and working mothers as a result of Covid-19. We have to stem that immediately. If there is uncertainty about September and the further reopening of schools, that has an obvious knock-on effect on crèches and on preschool and early years. What we need now, and what parents and those who work within the sector demand, is that there is some certainty brought to bear as soon as possible. I am not talking about weeks but days, so that people can plan and have some certainty and confidence.

The Minister speaks about a package of funding measures that have been put in place by the Department and they are to be welcomed. We will also be aware of the fact that there has been some pushback on that, with some justification, by the sector where the package of measures that were announced would not necessarily meet the true costs of meeting the public health regulations. Perhaps that is something that is being addressed on an ongoing basis.

One cannot stand here tonight and talk about childcare without talking about all children. I refer briefly to children in this State who are users of disability services. It is a frightening fact that there is still no certainty about children who use services such as those in my own area such as St Joseph’s Foundation, Enable Ireland and Cope Foundation, where the perception is that there is no communication directly with parents with respect to their children and as to whether or not they will have access to services come September. This distils down to services provided by St. Joseph’s Foundation as regards its respite facility called Cooleens House. I will quote from a letter I received which stated that this was the only residential facility available to St. Joseph’s Foundation to accommodate residents who require isolation as per HSE and public health guidelines. It is liaising with the HSE on reopening services but states, "While we await a positive response from the HSE, we are exploring possible alternate options in St. Joseph’s Foundation to provide urgently required breaks for priority families."

The funding position of organisations like St. Joseph’s Foundation, which we have right across our constituencies, is that their ability to fundraise at present is severely hampered and there is still the uncertainty. I take the point that the Minister will make and welcome the fact that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is here. I have no doubt that the Minister of State is working with the HSE and through her Department to work through these issues.

If we could treat this issue with a sense of urgency to give all families who access disability services some certainty about where they stand for September, I think it will give people some confidence. There is no doubt that it will require a funding package because there is no way that organisations such as St. Joseph's, the Cope Foundation or Enable Ireland will be able to provide or adhere to the public health guidelines unless they are provided with a funding package to be able to meet the regulatory requirements. This particularly relates to transport and access to services that are so vital, such as Cooleen's Respite House. There are hundreds of Cooleens throughout the State.

I do not think we can talk about children without talking about all children. I want to speak for those children, as we all have and do through our parliamentary questions, whose parents are beside themselves with worry about where they stand in all of this. They feel like forgotten people at present. I do not want to sound condescending or patronising but I know both Ministers to be inherently good and decent people. I was proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with people such as Deputies Function and Rabbitte when we were all in opposition, because they fought the good fight. I know the Ministers will fight the good fight for the people I speak of tonight.

I give some welcome to the Minister's speech. It is a guarded, cautious welcome, as the Minister will appreciate, but we need to move towards a fully-funded model. If it is a fully-funded model and private operators are operating within that system, there is a challenge which everybody acknowledges. The one thing that I think everybody is united on is that we have to stem the tide of attrition of workers within the sector. If the Minister, through the working groups, comes up with a model of childcare that every parent and child can be happy in, whether it is a blended model, a fully-funded model, a for-profit or a not-for-profit, then let us work through all of those when the proposals come before us. We have not even got to that starting gate yet. We recognise that it is funded to the tune of 60% but I think that we can go further. In the current climate, there has never been a greater opportunity to take that one step further, and in this crisis that we have at present, now is the time for lateral and imaginative thinking. The Minister will find that if the Government moves in that direction, we in the Labour Party will certainly move in lockstep with the Minister if we feel that it is a genuine effort to create a properly and fully-funded model of childcare.

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