Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As I have told the Minister many times, he has inherited a situation. He is more than aware that a year ago tomorrow, that childare workers went out on protest about pay and conditions. He is fully aware that of the approximately 26,882 childcare staff, 98%, are female. That says a lot about how we treat women and their conditions for work in this country in the 21st century.

I wish to raise two issues. It is important to pay tribute to the Oireachtas Library and Research Service. Last June, it produced a document and its key messages are worth looking at. I acknowledge the amount of money that has gone into the sector over a particular period and that it is multiples of a hundred. Notwithstanding that, what we need is a new model of public childcare. The Library and Research Service research showed that "Ireland has the highest level of private provision of early childhood care and education in the OECD with relatively low Government investment, low wages and high fees for consumers". It is a no-win for everybody. It notes that "the available research has identified positive outcomes for public early childcare" and that "the evidence base also indicates that in public provision countries childcare tends to be more affordable, accessible, and of higher quality than in private provision countries". The key challenge is to have a new model and for this Government to actually learn from the pandemic. I do not expect the Government to get things right in the middle of a pandemic - it is difficult - but to learn from it and from the crisis that the pandemic landed on and let us have a different public provision of childcare.

Different groups were set up and an interdepartmental group to look at this. What stage are they at? The Minister will not have time to answer this but I would appreciate a reply.

I will use my remaining 20 seconds to raise the Commission of Investigation into the Mother and Baby Homes. Will the Minister please return with clarification as quickly as possible on the destruction on the recorded evidence. Is it possible to retrieve it? Do we need legislation to extend the time to get an explanation and to get the evidence? At the very least, can we have clarification?

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