Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Today we are focusing on the cost-of-living crisis and rightly so. We have seen massive and outrageous hikes in energy bills that are hitting households very hard but which are compounded by pre-existing high costs arising out of the housing crisis, where we see people having to spend a huge proportion of their income on rental and mortgage costs but also on childcare costs, which are referred to by many as a second mortgage.

There are so many households with children struggling to pay for childcare. Today, I want to focus on childcare. When we describe childcare as a cost, and when parents see it as a cost, that is missing the point. This should be an investment in our future, in our society and in our children. Without the levels of public investment in childcare that we so sorely need inequality in Ireland is starting the day a child is born, which is not how it should be in a true republic. Children deserve an equal start.

The Labour Party, in particular through Labour Women, has been pushing for an equal early years campaign to ensure that children in Ireland will get an equal start and that parents will be freed from the heavy burden of paying privately for childcare, which remains so expensive and is such a huge cost for so many households. We know that in Ireland public funding for childcare remains a fraction of what is invested in other European countries. We know that UNICEF has recommended that 1% of GDP be invested in early years education and care. Although funding has increased and that is welcome, we still fall far short of that target by approximately 0.7%. For this reason, I have been calling for a Donogh O'Malley moment in early years education and care. Just as 50 years ago he, as Minister, introduced the concept of free secondary school places for every child as a right, thereby building prosperity for our country and building the investment in our children, so too should we now be seeking to implement and introduce a free childcare place, a guaranteed early years education and care place, for every child to give every child in Ireland an equal start.

Parents need to see a solution to the crisis of childcare they are facing and the State needs to do much more to address that. Most of all, children deserve that equal start. The Minister will have heard, as I do every day in our constituency of Dublin Bay South, that such is the challenge in even securing places in childcare facilities, let alone affordable places, parents are being asked to pay in advance for days they may not even avail of and they are booking childcare places long before children are born. Many who do manage to secure a place find their childcare bill exceeds what they are paying in mortgage or rent. The core funding model that is being developed - I know that is under way - will change things, but what has been committed to will simply not do enough to address rising costs and the shortage of places.

The system is failing providers and educators in childcare settings. We know from SIPTU's Big Start campaign that early years educators are demoralised, underpaid and, indeed, undervalued. Many are not paid a living wage. Does the Minister agree that we need a public childcare model in Ireland? Will the Government guarantee an early years place for every child and fair pay and conditions for staff?

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