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

I thank my colleague, Teachta Kathleen Funchion, for bringing forward the motion and all of the work she has done and engagement she does on a daily basis with providers and early childhood educators. We all know it is an essential service, but like many essential services in the State it has suffered from significant neglect by successive Governments. It has been more or less left to the private sector to deliver the service. This has resulted in many areas lacking a functioning childcare services to meet the needs of the population. It is especially true in areas that have a large young population and rural areas. In my constituency, we have a large young population and a significant proportion of rural areas. This means the childcare network across north County Dublin is under strain, where it exists. In some areas, it does not exist at all. The first issue that affects parents is a lack of available childcare.

Where a family is lucky enough to secure childcare, the second issue, namely cost, kicks in. The fees are still too high and are pushing many families to the brink. The cost often forces parents to make life-altering decisions to move home where they can to be closer to relatives, change jobs, work part time, work more unsocial shifts to be free during the working day, refuse promotion opportunities, leave the workforce and, as we see with many young people now, decide not have kids altogether. That is really not where we want to be.

In most cases, it is women who are directly affected when childcare becomes an issue. However, indirect effects are felt throughout the family as a whole. There are partners who have to work excessively to provide, parents who work so hard that they do not see their kids or partner, grandparents who do not get to experience retirement and families who have to go without just so that they can pay childcare fees. The stress of this can put pressure on family relationships and dynamics. Very few areas of life are not impacted by this. For this reason, parents want affordable, local and high quality childcare, and they want it now. They were promised that fees would decrease by 25% in budget 2024, and the Government must keep its word. The reality is that the 25% decrease in fees in budget 2023, while welcome, only slightly eased the financial burden on parents, given that many families continue to pay sky-high childcare fees and precious few saw a reduction of 25%.

Then there are the workers in the service who must remain at the front of our minds during any of these debates. Low pay drives highly qualified childcare staff out of their careers of choice, which we have seen happen. This has become especially acute since Covid. The workers in our early years services deserve decent pay. I am very concerned that the Government has taken a hands-off approach in the childcare pay talks. They need to recommence as a matter of urgency. The Minister has to ensure that the staff in the sector receive wage increases through sustained Government investment.

I have a perfect example of the impact of high childcare costs and the threatened closure of services. I received an email yesterday and spoke to the mam in question. She lives in Lusk. If she cannot access affordable childcare, she says:

I will not be able to afford to continue to send my child and there is literally no space in any other local crèche or in any other childcare provider for a place in ECCE. My child will be completely pulled from his routine, with his early education and development massively impacted. I will be forced to give up work because I will not have any childcare and we will end up in massive financial debt. We have a large mortgage.

This is the reality of what will happen to families if this matter is not resolved. She says, "Have you any answers? Can you tell me what is being done?".

Parents are very clear about what they need. They need access to affordable quality childcare and they want that delivered by well-paid professionals. My experience is one of the transformative impact of access to affordable childcare. At the age of 21, I would not have been able to go back to college were I not able to access affordable childcare. I certainly would not have been able to continue to work. I would have been forced into social welfare. I would not have had those options. Being able to access education was the bedrock on which we were able to build our small family. It was absolutely essential. For those parents who do not have it, the stress it creates is unimaginable.

We do not need any more shoulder shrugging. We need the Minister to roll up his sleeves and become proactive with childcare workers in the wage talks. He needs to make sure that the Minister for Finance hears that funding must be made available and that results are how the Government will be judged.

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