Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion.

This day last week the House discussed the need for a temporary extension on maternity leave to mothers of young babies. I stated then that the one point we must accept is that Covid-19 has changed matters utterly and we cannot simply dismiss proposals like those that were rejected out of hand by Governments in the past. Who would have thought that the Government would introduce a one-tier health system overnight or ban rent increases, a policy the very same Government had opposed previously? The same approach is now needed with regard to both childcare and maternity leave. As I stated last week, both are inextricably linked.

The issue of maternity leave masks a far greater problem with regard to childcare capacity, as well as the reopening of schools. These two issues will impact women in particular. We must do everything possible to ensure that the schools can fully reopen this September. My concern is that any reduction in the number of hours or days that children can attend school, particularly primary school, will disproportionately impact on thousands of women across the country. We have already seen the impact of the lack of childcare on our front-line staff.

We are seeing this again as parents are struggling to find care for young children where they cannot work from home and grandparents are unable to help out as many would normally have done. If schools do not fully reopen, we are going to see this childcare crisis on a far wider and greater scale. We are looking at a situation where childcare facilities may not open, provide for reduced numbers or not cater for children under two, while schools may only take a limited number of primary school students. Due to Covid-19, grandparents are no longer available to provide the support they historically have provided. All this will create a perfect storm, leaving parents without childcare options. We now need to look at innovative solutions which we would not have contemplated prior to Covid-19.

I listened to the Minister's speech earlier and welcomed his determination to bring about a review to consult with the various partners to bring about a new scheme. I wish the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, the very best in their endeavours. I know the Minister is sincere and that the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, knows this sector inside out and upside down.

With all due respect, however, it is kicking the can down the road. If we had time, I could understand that. At the end of this road, however, we will be at a cliff edge. My fear is that we could be on that cliff edge this September. We do not have that luxury of time. I wish we did but I do not believe we have. It would be great if we can come up with a solution to this. We have had consultation after consultation, review after review and engagement after engagement. We need to see real and practical movement now. We need to see this in weeks, not months or years. Due to Covid-19, we do not have that luxury of time that every new Minister should have to carry out consultation and engagement.

I find it bizarre that the education spokespersons were informed by the Minister for Education and Skills today that she is to set out a plan for the reopening of schools after the Dáil closes next week. I am concerned about that. I sat on the other side of the House. If the Government has bad news, it will wait until the Dáil closes. Whatever the Minister is going to announce next week, it will be approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday. She can then go from the Cabinet meeting to the Dáil to tell us exactly what is going on. She does not need to wait until the end of the week, unless there is something that she does not want to have debated. That really concerns me. If that is the case, the Minister opposite is going to have a far bigger problem in a few weeks' time than he currently has today.

The programme for Government states under the heading for a new social contract that it will progress a living wage over the time of the Government. That is commendable. However, we need to use the childcare staff sector as the pilot for the roll-out of the living wage across society. We cannot accept a situation which was highlighted to me by an individual, qualified both as a beautician and as a childcare practitioner, that she would earn more money painting nails than educating preschool children. We need to prioritise the sector. We need to put our children and their early years educators first and use them as the pilot to model the new living wage for all. It must be one that is not funded out of the pockets of parents who are already paying a second mortgage in childcare costs.

That would be an innovative approach to take instead of doing this incrementally across a broad range of sectors. No sector would disagree that this particular cohort of staff, who are mainly women, need to be prioritised because without access to childcare, other women cannot get into the workforce or earn that additional income.

The Government subsidy under the ECCE scheme pays childcare providers just €4.60 per hour for three hours a day to provide a preschool service. Many childcare providers were struggling to deal with the large number of challenges facing the sector even before the onset of Covid-19. It will be impossible to reopen the sector and provide the type of capacity needed for working families without a new funding model.

We saw what happened last December when providers faced a hike in insurance premiums. Prior to Covid-19, there was also an ongoing problem in recruiting and retaining staff due to the sector's inability to pay them a living wage. Before Christmas, I facilitated a delegation of childcare providers from across the west in meeting the then Minister, Dr. Katherine Zappone, where a number of issues were raised concerning financial support and the need to ensure staff were properly paid.

Many childcare providers are struggling to recruit staff because of the pay they can offer. That is unsurprising, given the fact that staff packing baby wipes on supermarket shelves can earn more than the staff member using those very same wipes who is responsible for the care of that baby along with two other babies. That is fundamentally wrong. We need to ensure that proper pay scales are put in place for those providing this vital service across the country.

I wish to highlight that the policy behind our funding model is primarily based around child benefit as the main mechanism to support childcare costs rather than a properly structured and funded sector, as is the case in other EU countries. This was outlined in budget 2001. In the past 20 years, that monthly payment has increased by 34%, a far cry from the rate of increase in childcare costs in a sector that is so dependent on low-wage employment. This policy is flawed and unsustainable.

See this speech in context