Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too ask the Minister to go back to the drawing board. Cuirim fíor-fháilte roimh Elaine freisin to the Gallery. I salute the champions of childcare, especially the small providers. I was proud and privileged to be a founder member of Naíonra Chaisleáin Nua with Helen McGrath and a couple of others. That institution is flourishing now. It is of the people, by the people and for the people. We are told, and studies state, that the most important years of our lives are the formative childhood years. I have two little grandchildren ins an naíonra anois and it is wonderful.

However, this Government is squeezing all the small people. This Government, the last one and the one before that all had some personal gripe against ordinary small businesses. Government wants all the big businesses to flourish and to hell with the small people. These small providers provide very dedicated nurturing - as I hope all people involved in the sector do - but they are beautiful, they help people and they instill all the values that are best in them. There are costs like insurance, gas, electricity - you name it. We have been saying this for years and the subventions the Government throws to providers are crumbs. Why does the Government have to wait, just as with the farm contractors that are disappearing now like snow off a ditch? As Deputy Tóibín said, two providers are imithe as Contae Phort Láirge. How many more will be gone while it waits? Think of the work the voluntary boards of management put in. People gave and give countless hours of their time freely. It is all that is best about the meitheal and the sense of support in rural and urban Ireland. Those people cannot sleep at night wondering where their next pay cheques are going to come from and whether they are going to have money to pay for the heat and light. The Government is squeezing them and squeezing them and squeezing them. We are denying mothers and fathers and parents their right to go out to work because they cannot get childcare. As the places close, they must travel farther and it is not viable. There are huge issues here. If the Minister does not grasp it and get his hands around it, then it will all have been in vain. I beg him to do something about it.

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