Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Funchion for bringing this motion forward and allowing us the opportunity to debate this important issue in the House. I welcome the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to the House. I would like to be able to welcome their response to the motion but, unfortunately, I cannot but I will elaborate on that later.

It is important to reiterate that childcare is a huge cost and burden on everybody across the State. For people who do not have children, it is a huge burden too because it prevents citizens from participating fully in the State.

Although there has been much talk of it tonight, it has to be restated that there are people who simply cannot get a job because they cannot afford childcare. I know and have spoken to many people - mostly women - who work purely to pay the rent and to cover childcare costs, and that is it. That is their entire income. They make good salaries but that is the entirety of what they can hope for. They cannot afford to have another child because it would increase their childcare costs and they would have to give up work. They would probably also lose their place to live. That is the reality of the system the Minister faces, which he has taken control of to ensure that it works.

The current system does not work for anybody. It does not work for the children who are in it, for the parents, who must pay unaffordable costs, or for the workers, who are very well qualified with degrees and so on but are working for the minimum wage. It has been stated by many speakers but it has to be stated again and again that workers with degrees are working for the minimum wage. That is what we expect them to do and then we wonder why they leave the system. Why would they even consider staying? The system does not work either for many of the people who have started a business in the industry, because it does not pay and because the private sector we have devised in the State to provide for childcare does not and cannot work.

In the Minister's countermotion, the Government commits to "establish an agency, Childcare Ireland, to lead in the expansion of high-quality childcare and the professionalisation of the workforce". It has been said by many speakers that there have been talks, consultation and discussion about the matter. Now the Government will spend the next couple of years setting up Childcare Ireland and getting it up and running, and then we will have to wait a further couple of years for Childcare Ireland to do all the research and so on and come up with proposals. I am sad to say that what will happen is the next three or four years will be spent on the establishment of Childcare Ireland, waiting for it to work and happen, and nothing will happen. Every response to questions we have submitted to the Department states that when Childcare Ireland is up and running, people will be doing research and that is what we will be getting. It is very unfortunate that that is what we will get.

It is disappointing but it is not very surprising. Given that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are in government, that is what we will get. Fianna Fáil established the system in 2000 or whenever it was, and we saw how that worked, while Fine Gael worked with it through the subsequent years. The Green Party will show that it will do the same as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and work with a system that will not work. Unfortunately, in five years' time, when the next Government is in office, we will probably be talking about the matter again. That is sad.

It is sad for families who will live through the system, but we could talk about it in a Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil way and say it is sad for the economy because it means our economy cannot grow. Perhaps that is the way we have to talk about these issues, to shake that magic money tree. It is about the economy and about making the economy grow. If we can get proper childcare facilities for these people, it will free up workers and help the economy, and it will probably even reduce wages by increasing the availability of labour. That will all stimulate the economy and keep it going. Perhaps if we change the way we talk about it and we talk about it in economic terms and the benefits to the economy, it might sink in with the Government and we might get a system that delivers. That, in itself, is sad too.

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