Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad we are having this important debate and I welcome Niall Muldoon's report. I know the Tánaiste will meet him shortly to discuss this and many other things.

For generations in this country, early childhood has been neglected in a terribly disappointing way. We have failed to develop adequate policies for early childhood which is so pivotal in the development of any child. Parents do not get enough support; they often cannot even get services. Undoubtedly that impacts more on children coming from a disadvantaged background. It is a major hole in our public policy that has only started to be filled since the publication of First 5, and the present Minister is obviously taking that on.

Dr. Muldoon's emphasis on building back better is very timely. We must tackle the structural changes that underpin this. I particularly welcome his emphasis on targeted services like the ABC programme, the back-to-school initiative, preventing families falling into homelessness and the school meals programme. These are crucial for programmes. His emphasis on living standards is also really important. However, in my view he overlooks very important policy dimensions here. He overlooks the importance of work and the progress that has been made in cutting poverty in this country as a result of getting people back to work.

The trends in poverty in this country before the pandemic occurred have been very positive. Consistent poverty has gone down from over 9% to just 5%. The at-risk numbers have gone down from 17% to 12%. We are heading in the right direction and we are implementing important policies.

The ESRI rightly pointed out that the impact on employment of the pandemic could greatly damage poverty. However, it pointed out that the combination of the Government's support programmes with a partial recovery would prevent that happening. That is an important element of its report. The Government has been successful in preventing poverty occurring according to its research by extending those report schemes.

As the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, pointed out, our social policies have been remarkably effective in reducing poverty. There are more than 40% whose income would be below the 60% median figure but that is reduced to less than 13% as a result of our effective social policies. We are doing some things that are good but we are not doing everything that is needed. Some of the measures that we have seen emerge are ones that we need to see more of. For example, the national childcare scheme supports 85% of the costs of childcare and after-school care for parents with an income of under €26,000. That is a really important scheme and it means that parents on low income can get access to those services. The 55% increase in child dependant allowance now means that for parents on low income, each child is getting up to €4,000 per year. That is a significant measure and is helping to bridge those gaps.

Through the rental schemes we are also providing 85% support of the cost of rent to families who are on housing assistance payment, HAP, or are in social housing. These measures have been really important in stemming poverty and bringing down those figures that I quoted earlier.

I agree absolutely with Deputy Gino Kenny who said we cannot let up on our determination to reduce homelessness. As he recognised, it has reduced by nearly half. However, the child poverty issue is much wider than homelessness. Only about 1% of children who are in poverty suffer homelessness. The needs of the other 99% also need to be addressed. I would like to see a wider context of structural change addressed by the Ombudsman for Children or by the committee should that one be formed.

In my experience we have failed in the education system to adequately address disadvantage. The DEIS programme is useful and has prevented the gap widening between the experience of children in disadvantaged areas and that of those in prosperous areas, but it has not narrowed the gap. We need a much more forensic and more imaginative programme particularly in areas of acute disadvantage where we can address that.

The curriculum is far too narrow and almost sets at a disadvantage from the word go many children who do not have academic-type backgrounds within their family. Access to work opportunities is crucial if we are to take on this issue. While the ombudsman's report emphasises really important issues, the Government must attend to these deeper structural changes.

I agree with what Deputy Ó Cathasaigh said earlier about the support for single parents. The Oireachtas published an important report and the programme for Government commits to implementing that. The programme for Government is absolutely committed to tackling the issue of child poverty. Not only is it explicitly there, but some of the individual programmes that the Government is committing to, such as the national youth homelessness strategy, are a really important element of this. The emphasis on prioritising lone parents is an important part of this.

The introduction of a DEIS-style health scheme in deprived areas will represent a very significant change. For the first time we will be investing more in the health support of children and their parents in areas of acute deprivation. We will be extending the Dublin north inner city initiative which has been successful in bringing communities together to tackle some of these embedded problems. I hope to see that particularly in some of the disadvantaged areas of my constituency.

We will be ending direct provision and I know the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, has personally been highly committed to this.

There are some very solid elements of a programme being formed through the programme for Government. Those also need be considered and given momentum as we seek to address the issue of child poverty and building back better, as we all agree.

The Government needs to give more consideration to the issue of measurement in respect of early childhood and the experience in early childhood. By and large what gets measured gets done and in this country we have failed dismally to measure any indicator of our success in early childhood.

We left it almost entirely to parents to take responsibility until relatively recently in our history. The evidence is there that the experience of a child in those early years and their access to a stimulating environment in play, early education, care and socialisation are crucial. I was educated by the Jesuits and I remember Ignatius Loyola said: "Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man." That is not a politically correct comment in these days but there is no doubt that the State in Ireland ignored those early years and left it entirely to parents to try to cope. That is not the way to go if we want to promote progress in our society. We need to start to look at the measures of positive well-being, as well as the measures of failure, which is a measure such as child poverty or homelessness. We also need to measure positive things that we seek to develop and promote, particularly participation in early education and particularly in those disadvantaged areas. In my area of Darndale, the preparing for life programme has been remarkably successful and as a result of that programme, three-year-olds come to early childhood opportunities much better placed to benefit from them than had they not had access to those programmes.

I wish the Minister well in his task. There are massive gaps in early childhood. We need to meet the parents in order that they can participate more fully in the workforce and that is particularly true of families that are on low incomes. We need to create a career structure in order that this sector will thrive and in order that people who go into it and who have problems or special needs can be properly and inclusively supported. We need a genuine developmental strategy for that sector, instead of purely checking the number of spaces and staff per child. We need to develop those 4,000 providers that are the bedrock of creating good early childhood environments. I have been fortunate enough to be in the enterprise sector, where we have 4,000 excellent exporting companies and they have access to training and grants to build their capacity. They also have access to supports if they want to enter new markets or design new products. You name it and they have access to supports. The 4,000 providers that are providing support for early childhood do not, however, have access to any of those supports that could allow them to build their capacity, be more inclusive and offer a wider range of services throughout the day. We also need to look at the assets the Government owns and make sure they are used to support early childhood. We should look at our schools that are empty much of the day and year. Those are assets that could be deployed, as I am sure the Minister would love to be able to, in support of early childhood services.

I am delighted that we have had this opportunity to debate this issue. We are just scratching the surface of the challenges we will face and I would be interested in participating in whatever structure the Minister feels is worth setting up to pursue some of these issues in early childhood.

See this speech in context