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

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. The strike is not going to go ahead on Thursday, but there will be a collection of signatures, petitions and so on. However, the clock is ticking because there is going to be a strike on 1 January. At least now there is a chance for the Minister to wake up to this very serious situation. After the next couple of weeks, the clock will start ticking and there will be an all-out strike in January. All this is due to inactivity and no realisation as to how shockingly treated the sector has been. Doors will not open after Christmas.

The Government has been given ample time to solve this crisis, but it has buried its head in the sand on this issue. Somebody is prompting the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, onto a road of no return with these early childcare providers. Whoever is doing this has him blinded to what is going on. I plead with the Minister to step back and order the Department to immediately release funds to early childcare providers. The Government is talking about three years' time. This funding is needed immediately by early childcare providers to help them to survive. The Minister should then sit down with the sector and provide fair funding levels for all who provide early childcare.

I meet with many early childcare providers and I have turned up at all the protests they have had. These people are mainly women, although there are a few men, who work very hard and they tell me they have to go to their husbands, their partners or their families to pay the wages or to keep the lights on in their business. There is something wrong somewhere. The Minister seems to be blind to it and seems to be quite happy that they are getting plenty of money. Somebody is getting money, yes, 100%, but we would love to know where it is going. We have pleaded with the Minister continually for a breakdown of the figures but he is walking into a massive all-out shutdown on 1 January if he does not come clean as to where the funding is going.

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