Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was the first person in my family to go to college. I cannot say that loudly or often enough and I am very proud of it. I would not have been able to do it without access to affordable childcare. At the time, the crèche in UCD was subsidised from the student hardship fund. One had to make an application but getting it was pretty much a foregone conclusion. There was recognition that people like me who were young and had children would need extra help to get through college. Without that access to affordable childcare, I would not have been able to go to college or to work. At the time, I was making £3.06 an hour. I worked in catering. I am, in fact, that old. I was able to work because I had subsidised childcare. My wages would not have been able to keep pace even then. I would have ended up working catering on the night shift so that my husband could work during the day. Access to affordable childcare changed our lives. As a family, it meant that we could gain qualifications, get experience, have careers and build a life for ourselves as a family. If we had not had that start, that would not have happened for us.

Sometimes there is a bit of a disconnect between people on the Government benches and real life.

Freezing the fees at the rate that they are at the moment will not help families. There are far too many women who have been forced out of the workforce because of the current rate of fees. Those women would love to go back into the workforce but they cannot do so. Therefore, stopping the fees where they are at the moment is not good enough. Far too many people in the State, far too many families and couples, are putting off having kids. They are limiting their family size, simply because of the unaffordable level of childcare.

I am urging all of the Deputies here to engage with the proposal put forward by Deputy Funchion and to acknowledge the leadership she has provided for the last number of years in this area. In recent weeks, I heard some talk and some chatter about the provision of childcare from people who I would class as very recent converts to it, although they might not like to admit that themselves. We need to seize the moment and act now. We need to listen to what workers and families are saying to us now.

If you live in my constituency, you are probably paying €2,000 per month in rent and added to that you have the crippling cost of heating and lighting your home and the cost of transport because the metro has been delayed again, so you will probably have to run a car. Families are getting squeezed. This proposal put forward Deputy Funchion and Sinn Féin will alleviate that burden. I would encourage Deputies to engage with the proposal and to support the motion.

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