Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Funchion on the motion. It is difficult to believe that mothers in north County Kildare are being forced to give up work not because of the marriage bar but because they cannot afford, or sometimes cannot secure, proper childcare for their children. Even their own mothers say they cannot believe this is the case in 2022. This issue affects mainly women given that, while we are nowadays allowed to continue working after getting married and having children, we have to earn enough to pay two women because it is mainly women who work in the childcare sector. In reality, therefore, this is an equality issue. We need a mandatory national fee structure for childcare, led by the Department, that will immediately reduce fees on a compulsory and incremental basis. We need this because, as every Deputy knows, parents are up the wall trying to manage rent or a mortgage, on top of which they have this baby mortgage.

The Minister asked what we would do if we were in government. We will increase Government funding by €267 million to allow providers to slash their fees to parents by two thirds, starting with one third in the first year.

We will enter into a contractual agreement with the providers and they can opt in. Then we will bring in, to start with, a living wage for staff and payscales for the well-qualified people working in the most important job in the State, namely, looking after our children and educating the next generation. This is all costed, practical, achievable and necessary and derives from the idea that childcare is a service to the public, our workers and our children.

We have serious concerns about core funding and how those proposals will impact on the small and excellent local providers who went into childcare to offer a service to their community and make a reasonable income. None of them expected to become a millionaire. My comrade, Deputy Funchion, has raised core funding with the Minister and we need the details because small local preschools across Kildare are worried about core funding and need the details too. Without the information on core funding available to us and them, they are worried this could be the death knell for the local and often family-run provider. I take this opportunity to tell them we hear them and will continue to push the Minister on this.

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