Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to Sinn Féin for bringing this important Private Members' motion before the House as it provides an opportunity before the budget to speak about the crucial role of all carers in Ireland, from childcare carers to carers for our elderly and people with intellectual and physical disabilities.

The problem with childcare has a number of different elements. First, if the people providing childcare are in the private sector, they are charged with paying additional costs such as energy bills, wages and rent for the premises. They are struggling to make a profit and keep their doors open. Today, I dealt with a person who is opening up a new facility and is facing insurmountable difficulties. All this person is doing is seeking to provide an excellent service in the community for parents who want to put their children in a safe and happy environment.

I am grateful to all those, whether in the public or private sector, who provide this very important care for our children. Nurturing and helping our young children to develop and become little individuals is one of the most wonderful roles that anybody can play. However, we have to make it profitable to do so and, at the other end, it must be affordable for the parents who pay for it. Young parents go out to work every day, have large mortgages and car loans and face various other types of pressure. They then have childcare costs and they find it very difficult to survive.

That is one aspect of the motion Sinn Féin has brought before the House tonight but there are also other carers, those who care for people in their homes. We all know and believe, and it is right to think, that the best place an older person can be is in his or her own home. It is probably the most cost-effective place for them to be but, what is more important than any money, it is the happiest place for them to be. They need assistance and care and need people to come in to their homes. I am grateful to all the carers I know in County Kerry who provide an excellent service, day and night. In bad weather and despite all kinds of problems and difficulties, they go into people's homes and take care of them.

I must mention congregated settings. Barring people from going into congregated settings puts further pressure on people who are keeping at home someone who might benefit more from being in a congregated setting. I ask the Government to reverse that rule which was brought in back to 2011. We all know that one shoe will not fit all sizes. I ask the Government to look at that rule.

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