Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputies Harkin and Joan Collins. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this topic. I support the intention of the motion and thank Sinn Féin for tabling it. Rather than focusing on temporary solutions, which are important to relieve the financial pressure, it is time to look at a new model. We have been struggling with this issue for some time. The Government's approach to early education is based on three strands, with which the Minister is very familiar. The first was announced in 2009 and brought into being in 2010. Then there were changes in 2019 and 2021. We had a trinity of changes. I acknowledge the extra money provided but I despair at the Government's continuing model for the provision of childcare, healthcare and housing, involving the privatisation of everything and the handing over of money to private providers. It is absolutely essential that we change that model and it is time to do so.

When I was in the Chair earlier today, I took particular notice of the Taoiseach's response to a parliamentary question in which he confirmed that the child poverty and well-being programme office has been set up in his Department. He spoke about six areas on which the office will focus in order to have the greatest effect on the lives of children, the second of which was early learning and childcare. However, we have had a jigsaw approach in this regard, definitely since 2009 and prior to that. Every election in which I have stood, in 2007, 2011, 2016 and 2020, the major topics at the door were housing, healthcare and childcare. Nobody asked for taxes to be reduced. I knocked on as many doors as I could in Galway and nobody asked for tax cuts. They asked for improved services. The Minister of State is looking at me. I am sure she had the same experience at the doors. People wanted services in return for taxes.

The Oireachtas Library and Research Service, as usual, has provided a very good note, published back in 2020, on the public provision of early childhood education in Ireland. The short report, setting out key messages, is well worth reading. It states:

Ireland has the highest level of private provision of Early Childhood Care and Education... along with relatively low Government investment [which I acknowledge has increased], low wages for educators and high fees for consumers. The available research has identified positive outcomes of public early childcare programmes...

Some of those positive effects are listed and I may have time to mention them presently. The report notes that the key challenge is to implement a policy shift. That is what we need from the Government but I do not think we will get it. I will put my hands up and say "Sorry" if we do. We are supposed to have learned from the Covid period. We are supposed to be learning about transformational change. We must stop with the market model. Of course, there is a place for the market, but the market must be subservient to the common good. Childcare is an essential service and it must be provided in a way that allows parents to make decisions at affordable and accessible rates. I would prefer it to be free. We pay taxes in return for services. The Oireachtas Library and Research Service has carefully identified that Ireland is nearly bottom of the list when it comes to public provision of early childhood care and education. It points to a 2019 European Commission report showing the cost of ECCE services for children under three in Ireland is among the highest in Europe. It also highlights that those countries with the highest fees all use market-driven mechanisms to provide early childhood care services.

There have been many protests by childcare providers, most recently last week. I support the protestors and I absolutely recognise the problems they have in trying to survive. However, the solution is not to provide more money in the coming budget and the following one. The motion put forward by Sinn Féin does not provide the solution either, although I support it without hesitation. We need public provision of childcare, as the Minister knows, just as we need public provision in many other areas. Care of the elderly has already been mentioned. Marketisation has reduced the choices available to people and made them more expensive in every single service we provide. We have seen a complete reversal in the provision of nursing homes. It used to be 80:20 in favour of publicly owned provision. Now, fewer than 20% of nursing homes are public and, as I was reliably informed today, only 3.5% of them are not-for-profit and they are struggling. All of the time, including with the housing assistance payment, HAP, and the various subsidies in housing, we are supporting a market that has utterly failed and does not put the common good to the fore.

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