Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin, specifically Deputy Funchion, for bringing forward this motion. The Deputy has worked collaboratively on the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, focusing on issues relating to children and their welfare. What is in the Sinn Féin motion is not a surprise to anyone. The majority of people recognise that childcare costs are far too high and are putting huge pressure on parents and social structures in our society. They also recognise that the rates of pay are not meeting the needs of staff within the sector either. I acknowledge, though, that the Minister has made a lot of investment in the sector and that he and the Department have focused on making the situation better for people. The childcare sector has suffered decades of underinvestment and a lack of focus and understanding by previous Governments. That is primarily because a lot of issues related to care and the role of women have been blind spots for Governments for many years.

Despite the level of investment and the work the Government is doing on childcare, there is a fundamental flaw and that is the model we are using, whereby the private sector is tasked with providing what should be a public service. That fundamental flaw will hold back and make less efficient any of the efforts or investment the Government makes. On that, I acknowledge that People Before Profit has an amendment to the motion on setting out the pathway to make childcare a public model. That is also the policy of the Social Democrats. There are fundamental public services that are the responsibility of government to provide, and childcare and early years education are among them. Unless Governments provide those services, they will never be fit for purpose because we are trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole. If the primary purpose of the childcare sector is making profit, it will fundamentally cause difficulties.

We have seen strikes in the childcare sector in the past week. I do not know whether the Minister has seen Michael Taft's analysis of that, in which he looked at the different private companies and corporations that are providing large-scale childcare services in this country. It was interesting that this level of analysis was done. I am not sure whether the specific crèche providers mentioned in the analysis were affected by the strike but it illustrates the reason we believe that a public model is the only way to go. Mr. Taft uses Giraffe Childcare as an example. He states it is "the largest childcare chain in Ireland, operating in 23 locations. It is owned by a UK firm which is controlled by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension fund."

In 2020, which was the last year it filed its accounts, the company's profits rose by 60% to almost €3.5 million. In 2019, it paid €6.5 million in dividends to its owners. Even though that amount was reduced in 2020, it still paid €1.7 million to its owners in dividends. This was the same year the company received €6.7 million in public subsidies through the temporary wage subsidy scheme. This illustrates that for very large providers, which often are overseas corporations or companies backed by pension funds or investment funds, their sole purpose is profit. They will take every subsidy the State will provide and pass it on to its shareholders. This is their legal responsibility and their fiduciary responsibility. It is up to the State to manage and control that. This is why we need to move towards a public model.

I understand that if a provider accepts the core funding and signs up to the model, it has to open up its books to the Department. Is this information made publicly available? It would be a very positive step to take. There would be full transparency about how much public money the providers receive versus how much they make in profits. Ultimately, as a society, we need to move away from the profit-for-care model which we also see in disability services and elder care.

We need to keep children at the forefront of every discussion we have on this issue. Much of the time we do not hear from parents. They are in the fog of just trying to survive and do what is best for their children while working and covering everything else and paying for all of the services. I frequently do consultation in Wicklow to ask parents how they are finding things, to try to gauge whether people are still having issues with childcare and early care and whether they are the same issues, including whether there is still a financial issue Obviously finances are still a big problem. I find it very disheartening to hear back from constituents who say they have had to leave work because they can no longer afford childcare Perhaps they have two or three children and it is no longer financially feasible to continue with childcare.

We are pulling a generation of women out of the workforce that they want to be part of. It is incredibly hard to get back into the workforce. After being out of the workforce for even two, three or four years, their confidence is hit and the work has moved on without them. It is very hard to make that step back in. In instances where women in particular want to get back into the workforce we should assist them to do so.

Something that crops up a lot in Wicklow is flexibility. When we speak about early years care and childcare every family is different and every child is different. Each child is different at each stage of their lives. Their needs are different. When their children are very young, parents might want them minded in their own homes. Then they might want them socialising so they want them to go to a larger setting. This flexibility in meeting the needs of parents and children is not available in the current model. During Covid we saw a lot of parents being able to work more from home. It is highly unlikely that parents are able to get a three-day crèche facility. Many parents have to pay for five days even though they only need the service for three days. The flexibility is not there. It is something we should be considering and incorporating in the model.

There has been a great deal of development in Wicklow. To be fair, the council is quite proactive and required large developments to provide crèches on site. The reality is that the crèches provided in each estate or grouping of estates are too expensive for the majority of providers to access. Parents moved into these estates thinking a crèche would open down the road but since the children were born, they have been looking at empty buildings that were never utilised. Ideally the State should look at purchasing some of these sites. It should work with the council to acquire them and then perhaps use them as community crèches. This is something that should be considered. There is no point in having these empty buildings. What happens is that the developers state they could not get anyone to take them on and they want to turn them back into houses. This has happened over and over again. Those families who bought houses because they thought the service would be available to them are left very frustrated. Will the Minister consider this and perhaps speak to the childcare committees? I imagine there are only certain areas that have these empty facilities. I would be very grateful if the Minister would look at that.

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