Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The early childcare providers have delivered for this country but shamefully, the Minister has turned his back on them. He has shamefully rattled out figures time and time again but has never broken these down. These providers have asked him for a complete breakdown of them. Those who came up here and had to go on strike for three days outside the Dáil have to listen to the Minister and the Taoiseach dismissing them as if they are only pieces of dirt. They are not. They are delivering a fantastic service. Some 97 of those providers have closed in the past 12 months but the Minister is not concerned about this. He is protecting someone out there and we all want to know who he is protecting because it is not the ordinary people and not the ordinary childcare providers.

I have attended every one of their meetings, whether in Cork or west Cork, that I have been asked to attend. No other Deputy does it, but when those providers are outside the Dáil here, every Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Deputy is running around patting their backs. What delivery has the Government given them? It has given them nothing and has destroyed their livelihoods. They are hanging on the edge and they have told us this. They are not making up this story. They do not want to be on strike for three days. They want to look after children. The parents of those children came up with them. The providers themselves were there. Their own families were there.

Let us imagine that for these providers to go home and provide an income, they have to turn to their partners or whatever, to survive. This is what they are doing. These women are telling me that they are turning to their partners or husbands for their businesses to survive every week. This is an astonishing situation. The Minister aiding and abetting them going out of business is not good enough. I told the Taoiseach that the Minister's position must be called into question. If the Minister cannot do his job, or if he does not understand the agony these providers are going through, then he must be dismissed; end of story. This is what happens in the real world that I grew up in any way. I refer to accountability, and it needs to start on the Minister's side.

See this speech in context