Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would like to acknowledge and thank Deputy Funchion for bringing forward the motion, which is important. Like everybody in the House, I continuously have parents ringing my office looking for advice, support and help to find a place in childcare in their local community. Parents are desperate to find childcare. Most have conceded that affordable childcare in Dublin is impossible to find.

The sky-high childcare fees and lack of places means that a whole section of society is being locked out of employment. At a time the Government is meant to be working for increased general equality, in reality what we are seeing is inequality increasing as more mothers are forced to stay at home. They are being denied the opportunity to return to a profession or education. This is a result of the Government's continued failure to deliver affordable childcare.

We are witnessing a substantial cohort of workers being locked out of the workplace. There is no doubt that this is causing severe damage to our economy and society. The hands-off approach of the Government has failed and, as a result, workers and their families are being left to pay the price. We are fortunate that in Dublin Bay South there are some brilliant community childcare facilities such as Ringsend and Irishtown Community Centre and St. Andrew's Resource Centre. I speak to the services regularly and they are demoralised by the amount of paperwork, box ticking and inspections that are taking place. The amount of work they have to put in does not ensure that children are being cared for. Childcare facilities do amazing work and are the heart of the community. They are a core element of building community and provide a valuable resource.

See this speech in context